Fiji recorded their first victory over Australia in 69 years following their 22-15 win in Saint Etienne on Sunday.

The Flying Fijians got back on track after losing their first Pool C game to Wales by a narrow margin. Josua Tuisova scored a try in the second half, and scrum-half Simione Kuruvoli kicked 15 points.

Mark Nawaqanitawase and Suli Vunivalu both scored tries for Australia, but they had to settle for a losing bonus point in a game where they were always second best.

Fiji knew going into the game that they couldn’t afford to lose, and if not for a terrible line-out and some key handling mistakes, they would have won by a much bigger margin.

Australia beat Georgia 35–15 last week. In a week, they will play Wales in a game that they have to win.

Will Skelton, the captain of the Wallabies, pulled out an hour before the game because he couldn’t get over a calf injury. The Wallabies almost didn’t get the losing bonus point because Fiji’s replacement scrum-half Frank Lomani missed a last-ditch penalty badly.

After three minutes, Ben Donaldson kicked a field goal to give Australia a 3-0 lead. This was made possible by a couple of high tackles by Fiji.

Before this game, there was a lot of talk about how Australia’s defence is weak in wide areas. Fiji started the game by trying to hit the flanks with risky missed passes that didn’t always work.

At the halfway point of the first period, Fiji was ahead 6-3 thanks to two penalties from the steady Kuruvoli.

Australia said last week that they had been working on their defence to stop Fiji’s offloading game from giving them more ground and momentum, and the Wallabies mostly stopped the Pacific Islanders’ attack.

Then, in an instant, Australia was in the lead.

Scrum-half Nic White’s 50-22 clearing kick gave Australia a line-up deep in Fijian territory. While Fijian players worked hard to get back, Nawaqanitawase quickly passed the ball to Samu Kerevi, took the return pass, and dove over for the first try.

Donaldson missed the conversion, and a few seconds later, Kuruvoli kicked his third penalty to give Fiji the lead again, 9-8.

They could never again lose it.

As Kuruvoli kicked another three-pointer, it was clear that Fiji was winning. They were also making Australia give up penalties.

But Australia’s tough defence kept the Fijians from getting the ball into the other team’s 22.

And when they did, bad handling and lost line-outs kept them from building on their 12-8 lead at halftime.

Fiji’s play finally earned them a try early in the second half.

Fly-half Australia Carter is a man. Gordon’s jump for a Kuruvoli up-and-under was too late, and Tuisova picked up the ball as it bounced and ran into the corner without being stopped.

Kuruvoli kicked the conversion to give the team a 19-8 lead, but that was his last important move before he was replaced by Lomani, who missed a penalty on his first try. It looked like Lomani was having cramps.

Fiji could have gotten a second try, but Tuisova messed up a two-on-one situation out wide by throwing a bad pass right into touch.

With 14 minutes left, Lomani’s successful penalty gave Fiji a 14-point lead.

Tuisova limped off, but almost right away, Australia’s Fijian-born replacement wing Vunivalu dove over a crowd of people to score. Donaldson added the extra point to cut the lead to seven.

The Fijians didn’t give up, and as soon as they knew they had won, their faces lit up with pure joy. This was a big change from the week before, when they were very sad.