The darlings of world rugby, Fjiana, have put on a show and no doubt won themselves plenty of new fans with some entertaining, free-flowing rugby to give World Cup favourites England a shock in their opening match of the tournament.
Heading to New Zealand as underdogs in their first World Cup ever, it took only minutes for Fijiana to make an impact on the game and have the crowd cheering. By the end of the first half, they'd scored two fantastically worked tries and had a sea of blue supporters in the stands believing the impossible.
While it would only take 10 minutes in the start of the second half for England to all but seal the win with four tries in quick succession, it wouldn't stop Fijiana from putting on a show and playing with heart to finish out the match 84-19.
The second game to kick-off on Saturday afternoon and before the expected 'blackout' from New Zealand fans at Eden Park for the final match of the night, it was a 'blue haze' of Fiji fans intermixed with England white making their presence felt as the crowd roared with delight every time Fijiana made a sniping run down the right wing or made a thumping tackle. They quickly became everyone's second favourite team.
Forced to use the sand dunes on their local beaches and substandard training gyms and facilities, Fijiana's journey to take on one of World Rugby's only fully professional outfits has been incredible in itself, before you realise they're the first team to put 14 points on the Red Roses in one half since 2020 -- 16 Tests ago.
Players come from amazing distances to make it onto the team, while many had only picked up the rugby ball for the first time a few years ago, with the Fijiana team taking a 10-year Test break between 2006-2016 and playing only a handful of Test matches in the five years leading into the opener.
"We don't really have facilities as England has but we make do with what we have," Fijiana captain Sereima Leweniqila told ESPN post-match. "We go to sand dunes, we go on mud runs and we have to share the gym with the men, which doesn't always work well.
"We also have a lot of girls who have to travel from far and do a lot to come to training, so sometimes we don't train as a team, we're training half and half and then finally if only when we get people into camp then we have the whole team to train together. There's been a lot of struggles and hard work for us to get here."
Facing the World No.1 side, Fijiana came into the match with little expectations but plenty of heart and hope, as well as their usual Fijian flair which appeared to catch England off guard early in the piece, with their rampaging forwards and sneaky offloads finding space and metres to manipulate.
But according to their coach Saisai Fuli, their exciting play also comes at their own detriment, with a lack of patience and keenness to throw the ball around hindering their chances.
"They were so excited when theyget the football they thinkthat as soon as they get the all they're going to score tries," Fuli told ESPN. "We have to understand that you have to be patient and have multiple phases. So there was some errors -- did score some good tries -- but the girls were just pushing the pass. I think it's just the excitement of being here in a big crowd 'cause they never play in this kind of an environment here.
With another two games to play against France and South Africa, it gives Fijiana another two chances to notch their first World Cup win and possibly find their way in the quarterfinals.