Scroll back through Semi Radradra’s Instagram feed, past the snaps of the Fijian team celebrating their win over Australia, commiserating after their defeat to Wales, further, past their warm-up fixtures, the victory against England at Twickenham in August, the loss to France in Nantes the week before. Further still, through the Pacific Nations Cup, and their wins over Samoa in Suva and Tonga in Lautoka and Japan in Tokyo, and keep going all the way back to July, and there you’ll find a film of the squad treading, arm in arm, up through the thick black sand of the big dunes at Sigatoka beach on the south coast of Fiji.
The climb is “a rite of passage for Fijian teams”, says their head coach, Simon Raiwalui, “it’s where we go to get punished”. And it’s also where their journey to Marseille began. Fiji have taken the long way here, it’s been about 16 weeks since they gathered for their first camp, and 16 years since they last played in a quarter-final, in this same city in 2007, when they lost 37-20 to South Africa. Most of this squad remember exactly where they were when they watched it. “Back at the farm,” says Tevita Ikanivere. “With my father,” says Albert Tuisue. “He promised me one day I would be representing Fiji in a World Cup.”
