The South Sea Islanders looked to be in command at halftime with a 12-5 lead but Paul John’s men hit back virtually straight after the break with a try by Chris Morgan.
Wales were then assisted when Fiji lost Osea Kolinisau to the sin bin and within a minute Scarlets winger Darren Daniel punished the Fijian’s indiscipline with a well worked try. With Rhys Jones adding his second conversion of the match, Wales secured a deserved victory to get the perfect start to their Australian campaign.
Fiji, who won the Wellington leg of the series, had gotten off to a flying start with Setefano Cakau racing over in the first minute and extended their lead through Nasoni Roko. The second try was converted by Emosi Vucago to give Fiji a 12-0 lead and things were looking ominous for Wales.
But the men in red lifted their game, kept the ball and hit back with a try by Justin Tipuric.
Wales will now face last year’s Adelaide Cup runners-up Kenya and Papua New Guinea tomorrow in their remaining pool games and must fancy their chances of making the main knockout stages for the second tournament in a row.
A delighted Wales coach Paul John was keeping his feet firmly planted on the ground after his side’s stunning fightback.
“We said all week this is the best time to play them – sometimes they take a bit of time to get into a tournament. The attitude of the boys was outstanding. We made a lot of errors in the first four or five minutes but once we stopped making those errors we started causing them problems.
“These boys are young and just need a bit of belief in the themselves. What we have got to do now is be consistent. We know we can beat sides like this but we need to do it on a regular basis.”
