Watch every second of the 2027 Rugby World Cup live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nEighth on the World Rugby rankings, Fiji will be favourites to finish in the top two of Pool C and move straight to the round of 16, a progression introduced as part of changes to the tournament format for 2027.<\/p>\n
Should they finish second in their pool behind Argentina, Fiji could meet Wales in their first knockout match if that side finishes second behind England in their own pool.<\/p>\n
From there, France would loom as the likeliest quarter-final opponent standing between Fiji and a maiden World Cup semi-final berth.<\/p>\n
Provided neither Australia nor Fiji finishes third in their group, the two nations cannot meet until a semi-final at the earliest.<\/p>\n
But Wilson believes any knockout opponent would be concerned with facing Fiji, who count backs Josua Tuisova and Jiuta Wainiqolo among their main strike weapons.<\/p>\n
“When they get all their internationals back, they’re one of the best teams in the world,” the Wallabies skipper said.<\/p>\n
“The amount of x-factor they have is really tough to verse (play against). I’ve got no doubt any team versing Fiji will be very worried about them.”<\/p>\n
Inclusion in the inaugural Nations Championship this year will give Fiji an outlet to build into the 2027 World Cup following improvements in recent years.<\/p>\n
Fiji notably defeated Australia 22-15 en route to a third World Cup quarter-final appearance in 2023, their first win over the Wallabies since 1954.<\/p>\n
The Fijians bowed out of the tournament with a tight 30-24 last-eight loss to England and more recently took it to Australia in the Wallabies’ season-opening Test in 2025.<\/p>\n
It took a last-gasp try from Wilson for the Wallabies to snatch a tight 21-18 win, with that match front of the forward’s mind when asked about Fiji’s Cup potential.<\/p>\n
“Fiji are a massive threat, we obviously versed them last year in Newcastle and we got it done on the bell there,” he said.<\/p>\n
Fiji’s Pacific rivals Tonga and Samoa have their work cut out to advance beyond the World Cup group stage and into the round of 16.<\/p>\n
Tonga, 18th on the World Rugby rankings, play England in Brisbane to begin their campaign before dates with Wales and Zimbabwe in Melbourne and Townsville, respectively.<\/p>\n
Samoa, ranked 19th, play Japan in Newcastle, USA in Perth and France in Sydney.<\/p>\n
Four of six teams that finish third in their group stage will advance to the round of 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby World Cup smokies Fiji have the x-factor to worry any team at next year’s tournament, says Wallabies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,3739,760,85,2500],"class_list":["post-456358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fiji","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-wallabies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}