Rugby: So, will Fiji be good, bad or simply awful

Fiji winger Rupeni Caucaunibuca signals to the crowd after scoring against Scotland during the 2003 World Cup. File photo / Brett Phibbs

Call it the "Rupeni Effect". Outrageously talented and physically gifted, you would have thought Rupeni Caucaunibuca had it all. In some respects he did.

On his day he was near unstoppable, but the problem was other days came around far more often than "his day".

Rupeni loved food, sleeping and sloping off back to his village more than he enjoyed training.

Even living next door to Eden Park was no guarantee he would make it to practice on time.

The player England's Mike Tindall described as the best he had ever opposed accrued just seven test caps. That was enough time to score nine tries, some utterly brilliant, and leave you wondering just how good he could have been.

His record at the Blues (13 games, 15 tries) was almost as brief and just as prolific. His on-again, off-again affair with French club Agen provided more than 40 tries and twice as many migraines for club officials as they tried to work out, A) where he was and, B) what state he'd turn up in.

On a different scale, the international team he represented so sporadically mirrors the mystery of Rupeni.

With spectacularly quick, big men, the Melanesians should be a threat to anybody, as they have been in sevens for two decades, but trying to guess whether good Fiji, bad Fiji or plain indifferent Fiji will turn up is another matter.

The Fiji that comes to New Zealand is more often that not spectacularly awful. In five tests against the All Blacks here since 1980, the visitors have lost by an average of 67-7.

The nadir was six years ago when they lost 91-0 at Albany and displayed such indifference you were left wondering if they ever wanted to be there at all.

Even against an All Blacks lineup that bears only scant resemblance to that you would expect to see if the test was, say, a World Cup final, it is almost impossible to picture Fiji doing a Samoa in Dunedin tonight.

In terms of their preparation for bigger things later in the year, it's impossible to say whether tonight's events even matter. This is a hugely inexperienced team. Recognisable names are thin on the ground. When it comes to the World Cup, pinning form on them is sill more elusive.

In France four years ago, they looked dishevelled, scraping past Japan, stumbling past Canada and being thrashed by Australia, before the muse suddenly struck against Wales.

When they went to book in to their Marseille hotel before their quarter-final date with South Africa, they found names like Williams, Evans, Jones and Jenkins sprinkled through the reservation page, demonstrating how much faith those in charge of bookings had in them progressing.

They gave South Africa a decent fright, too.

With Australia and New Zealand already sensationally bundled out, wings Vilimoni Delasau and Sireli Bobo threatened Sanzar's one remaining representative - but the Boks eventually had too much in the tank. South Africa escaped and won the match; Fiji won over the people of Marseille.

Until then, Fiji's World Cup story had been one of poor performance and sheer bad luck. In 2003 they failed to make it out of their pool.

In 1999, they were dudded by referee Paddy O'Brien after dominating France, then bottled it against England.

In 1995, the last 16-team tournament, they did not even qualify, which wasn't much worse than 1991, when they lost all their pool games, including to Canada and Romania.

At the first World Cup they qualified out of Pool A with just two points (they finished ahead of Italy and Argentina on tries scored).

In the quarters they gave France a hurry up and might have won were it not for big fullback Severo Koroduadua dropping the ball after carrying it one-handed with the line open and the Gauls on the ropes.

Only Fiji seem to be able to thrill and disappoint in such close proximity. They've made a skill of it.

To be fair to Rupeni - who at 31 would be still be able to do some damage at Carisbrook if he'd done things a little differently during his career - he was only carrying on a fine tradition.