Flying Fijians captain, Meli Derenalagi, saluted his team-mates for their courage and resilience of giving their best against the Barbarians despite the challenges they went through.

“We arrived here (in London) on Thursday, had our first run and we played (the Barbarians),” Derenalagi said after their 45-32 loss yesterday (Fiji time).

The Flying Fijians travel to London was marred by the refusal of the European clubs to release their Fijian players since the match is not within the July Test window. Utility back Vilimone Botitu was the only player out of the 12 overseas-based players that was released.

This resulted in the Flying Fijians getting the available players over, which led to the mix-up of their visa applications.

Derenalagi reiterated that he was proud of his players for standing together despite what they had to go through.

The Fijians were trailing 31-17 midway into the second half before they struck to lead the Barbarians 32-31. However, two late tries from Sam Whitelock captained-side saw them home.

Whitelock said after the match that it was not always easy to play the Flying Fijians.

“They (Fijians) love to play (rugby),” he said.

Try doubles from Lachlan Boshier, Jonny May and Leicester Fainga’anuku were added to by a crossing from Zach Mercer as an end-to-end game was won by the Barbarians.

The under-strength Flying Fijian side pushed the famous invitational outfit all the way in London as an Epeli Momo hat-trick and Kemu Valentini’s try saw them press for the win.

According to Planet Rugby, the standout player at Twickenham was Momo, who claimed a wonderful hat-trick as a young and inexperienced player proved that the future is bright.

Indeed, Fiji head coach Mick Byrne and his players will take a great deal from this narrow loss ahead of their upcoming Tests against Georgia and All Blacks.

“For us we’ll prepare for Georgia and then New Zealand,” added Derenalagi.

The Flying Fijians travel to Georgia to prepare for their Test clash to be played in July 5 at the Adjarabet Arena in Batumni. The Test match will be controlled by Craig Evans of Wales with Luke Pearce and Christophe Ridley of England as the assistant referees. The TMO referee is Ollie Hodges of Ireland.

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