Full Time in Bordeaux where it has finished 17-12 to Fiji in dramatic fashion after late drama. Fiji were far from their best this evening but get the job done. Georgia secure an important losing bonus point, but could have won this game right at the death.

The opening ten minutes belonged to Georgia, who already looked much better than they did during their 18-18 draw against Portugal last week. In the opening ten minutes, Fiji were forced to make over 35 tackles, compared with Georgia’s 2.

However, their inability to be clinical on entries into the Fijian 22’ would hold them back as they squandered multiple good chances. In certain cases, an offload was viable, but the Georgian’s were unable to execute the passes. Georgia would get on the scoreboard first, Luka Matkava converting an early penalty, making amends for his missed conversion against Portugal last time out.

Georgia were rocked by two early injuries. Firstly, Tengiz Zamtaradze was removed from the pitch with what looked like a collar-bone injury. Then, just five minutes later, Lasha Jaiani was left rolling around the floor in pain as he suffered a nasty looking leg injury. He would be withdrawn on a stretcher.

Despite the early injuries, Georgia remained calm and composed, and showed great spirit to neutralise the Fijian attack. A monstrous penalty kick from Davit Niniashvili from 55m metres was struck cleanly between the posts to extend Georgia’s lead to six points in the 18th minute.

Fiji would enjoy a good spell of possession, but they failed to convert their momentum into a tangible score. Camped in the Georgian 22’, they lacked any structure in their attack in the opening 25 minutes. With the option of an easy kick at goal after winning a penalty, the Fijians instead opted to tag-and-go, only to then knock it on three phases later. Georgia would make Fiji pay for this mistake minutes later as Niniashvili was on hand to kick another excellent penalty through the posts from the halfway line.

Georgia lead this game 9-0 at half time and they have been brilliant and smart. Fiji on the other hand looked a different side to the one that dismantled Australia two weeks ago. They made uncharacteristic handling errors and their lineout was a mess. They looked tired and rattled early in this game; Georgia smelt blood and they were going for it.

Georgia almost score a try on the brink of time, in fact Akaki Tabutsadze had touched the ball over the line, but referee Karl Dickson deemed the pass from Mikheil Gachechiladze to have drifted forwards. Dickson opted not to go to the TMO, but the replays looked as if the pass was flat.

Georgia took great confidence from the opening 40 minutes and would look to build in the second half. Matters were made worse for Fiji as Semi Radradra was shown a yellow card in the 41st minute for a deliberate knock-on to kill a dangerous Georgian counter attack. Georgia would look to capitalise on their man-advantage but made a string of unfortunate and costly errors in the Fijian 22’, allowing Fiji to clear the danger.

Fiji would come back up the field and would get themselves on the scoreboard thanks to a brilliant finish in the corner from captain Waisea Nayacalevu. After stealing a Georgian lineout, Fiji played a series of phases before spreading the ball wide to Josua Tuisova. The centre found his partner Nayacalevu in the corner, who did brilliantly to stay infield before dotting the ball down for a try.

An excellent conversion from Frank Lomani would reduce Georgia’s lead to just two points, with Radradra’s time in the sin-bin coming to a close. Ironically, Lomani’s following penalty effort in front of the posts was missed.

After a prolonged period of Fijian pressure, they would turn their control into points at Frank Lomani converted a penalty from 40 metres to give Fiji the lead for the first time in this game in the 64th minute. Lomani didn’t connect with the ball brilliantly, but he did just enough to see the effort through the posts. Fiji held a narrow one-point lead with fifteen minutes still to play.

Fiji rolled back the clock and produced a moment of magic in the 67th minute as they scored a wonderfully created try to stretch their lead over Georgia to 8 points. Capitalising on a bouncing ball, Levani Botia found himself with the ball on the right wing just inside the Georgian 22’.

The flanker bulldozed through three defenders, before being smothered, however he then produced a wonderful offload to an oncoming Vinaya Habosi who would gather the ball well and cross the try line for a brilliant score.

Georgia showed signs of real promise, but they lacked a clinical edge yet again in this game. They entered the Fijian 22’ ten times, and had nothing to show from it, their only points coming from kicks from distance.

A late penalty from Matkava would bring Georgia within 5 points, thus awarding them a losing bonus point, but they could have won the game right at the death. With Fiji a man down thanks to a yellow card to Josua Tuisova, Georgia had an overlap out wide inside their own half. With the clock in the red they had to run with it, Gela Aprasidze eventually producing a wonderful chip kick for Matkava to chase. Fiji’s Ilaisa Droasese would recover well and kick the ball out of play to bring this game to a dramatic end.

Full Time in Bordeaux and it’s Fiji who get a crucial win over Georgia, despite looking far from their best. We await to see if Tuisova’s yellow card gets upgraded to a red, but for now it’s job done for Fiji.