Wednesday's Rugby World Cup action comes from Pool D where Fiji take on rank outsiders Uruguay in Kamaishi City.
Fiji v Uruguay, Wednesday 25th September, Kamaishi City, KO 07:15 (South African time)
Weather Forecast – Kamaishi City
Referee: Pascal Gauzere
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner, Andrew Brace
TMO: Marius Jonker
Fiji
Fiji's first action of the tournament came against Australia at the Sapporo Dome on Saturday. For an hour they threatened a surprise win but the Wallabies finished the stronger and came out on top 39-21. Fiji started at around 15.5 point underdogs for that game and an early try from Peceli Yato was the highlight of a terrific first half display and Fiji led 14-12 at half time. The lead was stretched to 21-12 early in the second half when Waisea Nayacalevu went over but thereafter the Wallabies assumed control. Australia scored 4 of their 6 tries in the final 24 minutes of the match to secure a bonus point win and leave Fiji empty handed with this game and clashes with Wales and Georgia still to come.
In RWC 2015 Fiji also came up against Australia, Wales and Uruguay in the pool stage (along with England) and their only victory came against Uruguay (47-15).
Uruguay
Uruguay are ranked 19th in the world and they came through qualifying to reach their fourth finals. However unless there is a remarkable improvement on their showing in 2015 it is hard to see them being remotely competitive as they lost all their pool matches 4 years ago, scoring a total of just 30 points and conceding 226.
In June Uruguay hosted two other rank outsiders competing in the 2019 RWC finals; they beat Russia (48-26) but lost to Namibia (30-28).
Line Ups
Fiji: 15 Alivereti Veitokani, 14 Filipo Nakosi, 13 Semi Radradra, 12 Jale Vatubua, 11 Vereniki Goneva, 10 Josh Matavesi, 9 Henry Seniloli, 8 Leone Nakarawa, 7 Mosese Voka, 6 Dominiko Waqaniburotu (captain), 5 Api Ratuniyarawa, 4 Tevita Ratuva, 3 Manasa Saulo, 2 Mesulame Dolokoto, 1 Eroni Mawi.
Replacements: 16 Tuvere Vugakoto, 17 Campese Ma’afu, 18 Lee-Roy Atalifo, 19 Tevita Cavubati, 20 Samuel Matavesi, 21 Nikola Matawalu, 22 Ben Volavola, 23 Levani Botia.
Uruguay: 15 Gaston Mieres, 14 Nicolas Freitas, 13 Juan Manuel Cat, 12 Andres Vilaseca, 11 Rodrigo Silva, 10 Felipe Berchesi, 9 Santiago Arata, 8 Manuel Diana, 7 Santiago Civetta, 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara (c), 5 Manuel Leindekar, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 3 Diego Arbelo, 2 German Kessler, 1 Mateo Sanguinetti
Replacements: 16 Guillermo Pujadas, 17 Facundo Gattas, 18 Juan Pedro Rombys, 19 Franco Lamanna, 20 Juan Diego Ormaechea, 21 Agustin Ormaechea, 22 Felipe Etcheverry, 23 Tomas Inciarte
Bet on the Rugby World Cup with up to R1000 in extra bets
Head to Head
Fiji have won all 3 previous meetings with Uruguay.
In November 20-18 Fiji romped to a 68-7 victory on neutral ground and back in 1999 they won another international on neutral ground 39-24.
When the teams met in Milton Keynes in RWC 2015 Fiji scored 7 tries to Uruguay's 2 in the 47-15 victory
Betting - Handicap
Fiji -29.5 points at 9/10
Uruguay +29.5 points at 9/10
Quotes are an average of what was on offer from a selection of bookmakers at the time of writing and are subject to change.
Sportingbet, Claim your 1st deposit bonus of up to R2,000 here
Betting Angle
Uruguay will be itching to go having watched virtually all of the other teams play. The minnows have punched above their weights in the opening games of this tournament to date and I am expecting Uruguay to give some early resistance against a Fiji team that may just drop off the intensity a bit from the Australian match.
I think they can get amongst the tries and will back them to score 11 points or more
Bet: 3 units Uruguay over 10.5 points at 19/20 at GGGaming.bet
Have your own say alongside our global community of rugby punters
Not a member? Register a new forum account here
Subscribe to our Youtube channel free and get notifications of all our live stream betting shows