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Fiji look to their 'Demolition Man' to dismantle Portugal / Photo: © AFP
Fiji look to their 'Demolition Man' to dismantle Portugal
Levani Botia lived up to his nickname "The Demolition Man" in taking Fiji's Pool C game with Georgia "by the scruff of the neck", a performance that assistant coach Brad Harris hopes he will repeat against Portugal on Sunday.
The 34-year-old La Rochelle star set an example to his teammates, rousing them from their error-strewn performance against a robust Georgia side to edge it 17-12.
It took them to the brink of their third ever appearance in the quarter-finals, and their first since 2007, which a win over Portugal would ensure.
Even if they are defeated, a defensive bonus point would suffice because it would put them level on points with Australia but the Fijians would qualify as they beat the Wallabies in their pool match.
Harris said Botia had risen to the challenge even at the half-time talk when Georgia led 9-0.
"I think the coaches got across the technical points we wanted to get across and then Bots, his leadership at the half-time break was phenomenal," said Harris.
"He (Botia) went out there and took the game by the scruff of the neck both in attack and defence he was on another level."
Harris said former prison officer Botia, whose wife was extremely surprised back in 2011 to turn on the television and see him on a rugby pitch as he had not told her he played the sport, had produced a performance to treasure.
"When the heat is on you want your senior players to not only talk about leading but step up and lead with actions and I thought he wouldn't have played many better games in his career."
Harris said though that if the players think they have done the hard part they should think again as Portugal will be no pushovers, having given Wales and Australia some tough moments.
"We have another tough battle," he said.
"I thought Wales had to fight really hard to get a win against Portugal, they scored their fourth try in the last play of the game.
"It was pretty similar to Australia, they managed to get their points when Portugal had a player in the sin bin."
Australia, staring at the ignominy of being the first Wallabies side to fail to reach the last eight, have a week kicking their heels in France while they await a likely elimination.
Their under-fire head coach Eddie Jones quipped he would give two of his Fiji-born players his credit card and they could buy some kava, a Pacific Island drink which has sedative properties, and give it to the Fijians.
"We will take Eddie's credit card after we beat Portugal," said Harris.
"Pass that back to Eddie, we'll take his credit card to buy some kava for our team function."
T.Martin--SFF
