Fiji Bati's Clash Against Italy Will Be The Quarter Finals Decider

The Fijian Bati must beat Italy on Sunday, if they are to qualify to the Rugby League World Cup quarterfinals.

This was after Italy thrashed favourites Scotland 28-4 in their Group B clash yesterday.

Italy captain Nathan Brown said they were determined to prove critics wrong after giving them no chance of winning a game.

“We knew that pretty much everyone wrote us off for this whole tournament and that’s what us Italians are all about: passion, hard work and fighting to the death,” the Parramatta Eels lock said.

“All we were talking about through the week was fighting forthe full 80 minutes. It’s a real honour

to be captain of Italy.

We’re in a tough pool. All we know is to keep fighting.”

The Italy players are mostly playing in the New South Wales (NSW) Cup, Queensland Cup and Super League competitions.

The Fijians suffered a 42-8 loss to defending champions Australia last Sunday morning (Fiji time).

Scotland’s hopes of qualifying from Group B are all but over as they face Australia, this weekend.

Doing the impossible However, Scotland coach Nathan Graham is confident to get his side up to play Australia despite making the worst possible start in their shock loss to Italy.

The Bravehearts, who were quarter- finalists in 2013, went into the game as favourites but are now destined for the wooden spoon following a lifeless display in front of a 6,206 crowd at Kingston Park.

Scotland were outclassed by their lowly opponents but Graham remains excited by the prospect of taking on Australia in Coventry on Saturday (Fiji time).

“We’re playing the world champions next and, if we can’t get up for that game, we don’t deserve to

be here,” Graham said.

“It’s a quick turnaround so we’ve got to get the bodies right and, more importantly, our heads right and come up with a game plan for Australia.

I expected to win.

“I thought our personnel was good enough to get the win,” Graham said.

“We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. You’ve got to build pressure but we showed a bit of whiteline

fever at times and came up with a few unforced errors.

“The positives were that our halfback pairing of Calum Gahan and Bailey Hayward got to play together

for the first time.

They’re young kids and they’ve one game more than they had building into next week.”

Results: Scotland 4-28 Italy, Jamaica 2-48 Ireland, New Zealand 34-12 Lebanon.

Story By: Leone Cabenatabua

Feedback: leonec@fijisun.com.fj