SUVA - Fiji's confidence in sevens rugby took a hefty battering by a New Zealand side featuring three of the game's rising stars in the final of the Fiji leg of the international world series.
New Zealand's five-tries-to one, 31-5 win on Saturday night answered several questions raised during their 14-24 loss to the Fijians in the New Zealand sevens final a week earlier.
The win, built from the retention of possession and solid defence, was the most significant since New Zealand's gold medal effort in the 1998 Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur.
More important was evidence that New Zealand can win next year's world sevens tournament in Argentina without players such as Christian Cullen and Jonah Lomu.
Nineteen-year-olds Malili Muliana and Amasio Raoma and 20-year-old Craig Newby proved they were ready for premier-level sevens with mature performances.
North Harbour's Newby, playing the role of a loose forward, smashed down the Fijians' running efforts and tidied up in general play.
Raoma was particularly aggressive against his countrymen after being constantly given a hard time by the Fijian crowd.
"I had to play well and show it to them," the Aucklander said. "I had to do more than just play an aggressive game."
Muliana, also from Auckland, did most damage on attack. He carved up the normally solid Fijian defence after constantly pounding into it, twice scoring himself.
New Zealand captain Eric Rush said beating Fiji at any time was difficult, but beating them in Fiji was "twice as hard." New Zealand became the first visiting team to win the Fiji sevens title since its inception seven years ago.
"I know how they must be feeling. We felt that a week ago," said Rush. "We were hurting after our loss in Wellington and winning here has helped that greatly. We wanted to win badly at home and Fiji wanted to win just as bad here - that's sevens rugby. Our young fellows did the job for us. This victory is their victory."
But New Zealand's joy was Fiji's despair after a defeat before a fanatical 15,000-strong home crowd.
Coach Peni Veidreyaki did not know whether to change his team for the next leg of the world circuit in Brisbane this weekend.
"What do we do now? I don't know yet. Hopefully, we'll have things sorted in the next few days before we fly to Australia." - NZPA
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