Kangaroos host Fiji in Brisbane in Rugby League World Cup Pool A clash
Australia meet Fiji at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Sunday evening in the second round of the men's Rugby League World Cup. Kick-off is 7.05pm local time, which is 9.05am GMT. The Guardian's live coverage is following the match.
This is a Pool A game. The group also contains New Zealand and the Cook Islands, and each side plays the others once in the group stage. Teams that do well in their pool move into the knockout rounds, so every result counts.
Australia, known as the Kangaroos, opened their campaign against New Zealand at Allianz Stadium and won 24-22. Jack Bostock scored a hat-trick of tries in that match, as the Guardian reported. Fiji started with a win of their own, beating the Cook Islands.
The two nations have met seven times before, and the record is lopsided. Australia have scored 378 points to Fiji's 24 across those games, according to the Guardian. The most recent meeting at a World Cup came in 2022, when Australia won 42-8 at Leeds.
Kevin Walters is in charge of the Kangaroos for this match. Reuters reported before the tournament that Australia were favourites to lift a 13th World Cup title.
For anyone new to the sport, here is the basic idea. Rugby league is played with 13 players a side. The team with the ball has six tackles to move forward. If they fail to score or gain enough ground within those six, possession goes to the other side. Those six tackles are the spine of the game, and teams that handle them well tend to control the field.
Fiji are known for their speed and offloading, the habit of passing the ball out of a tackle while still on the move. Their attack relies on keeping the ball alive, and a defence that holds its line can make that very hard. Australia will be looking to limit their chances while keeping their own set of six tackles ticking over.
Fans heading to the ground were told that event shuttles would start running at 6pm. The match itself is a chance to see how far Fiji have come, and how the Kangaroos respond after their first-round test.
