Nemani Nodolo suspended for Fiji’s clash with Wales

World Cup disciplinary chiefs have banned Fiji star Nemani Nadolo for one week for a risky tackle, ruling him out of the Pacific Islanders key match with Wales.

The 27-year-old was cited for a unsafe tip tackle during Fiji’s Pool A defeat to Australia five days ago.

Wales welcome Fiji to the Millennium Stadium on Thursday, where a bonus-point victory may be enough to see them qualify for the knockout stages of the Rugby World Cup if England lose to Australia on Saturday.

Taking into account mitigating factors including Nadolo’s excellent disciplinary record, the suspension was reduced to a week.

Nadolo has scored Fiji’s only try of the tournament against England and has contributed 16 of their 24 points.

“Certainly their goal kicking is spot on, so we’re going to have to be careful to be well-disciplined in our own half”, coach John McKee admitted on Sunday.

“Although we did well in parts of our first two matches, there are other parts of our game where we didn’t do so well”.

He said: “I don’t think we will be resting too many players. We have a lot more work to do and the lads who came so close in 2011 still have that feeling”. “We showed in the last World Cup we can do a lot of damage when we put our minds to it”, he added. We can only play what’s in front of us.