Jac Morgan scored two tries as Wales beat Fiji 39-24 in their opening Nations Championship match in Cardiff on Saturday.
After beating Italy in their final match of the Six Nations, the victory at Cardiff City Stadium gave Wales back-to-back Test wins for the first time since the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
It was a hat-trick of victories after Steve Tandy’s team beat the Barbarians at Twickenham last week in a non-cap international.
Wales will now travel to play Argentina and South Africa, while Fiji play two more designated home fixtures against England in Liverpool and Scotland in Edinburgh.
“All credit to the boys for sticking with it for the 80 minutes and to come out with the win,” Captain Morgan told Welsh television Channel S4C.
“We know how hard it is to face Fiji. They are very physical and it took us the 80 minutes to beat them.
“We knew we had three tough summer Tests and we’ve got another two coming up against Argentina and South Africa,” the flanker added.
In front of a crowd of 16,456 at the 33,000-capacity Cardiff City Stadium, Fiji dominated the opening exchanges and were rewarded not even three minutes into the game when Pita Gus Sowakula crossed for a try after some slick off-loading.
Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula converted before Wales hit back with a Morgan try from an attacking line-out and drive.
Selestino Ravutaumada knocked on at the tryline as Fiji turned over Wales seven times in the opening 25 minutes.
Fiji were dealt a hammerblow when experienced back Semi Radradra went off injured.
Immediately, Wales struck from the line-out, once again man-of-the-match Morgan driven over from an efficient maul.
Wales had dominance not just from the line-out, but also at scrum time, winning a hatful of penalties against a profligate Fijian frontrow that lost Tim Hoyt to injury.
Armstrong-Ravula booted a penalty on the stroke of half-time to equal the score at 10 points apiece, Dan Edwards having missed both of Wales’ conversions.
The second period started well for Wales.
Rhys Carre powered over for the team’s third try before Josh Adams caught Ravutamada snoozing as the Fijian winger waited for a long ball to go dead.
Adams didn’t give up his chase and got a hand to the ball before it touched the line to extend Wales’ lead.
Fiji hit back with an attacking maul of their own, No 8 Elia Canakaivata crashing over, Armstrong-Ravula converting to make it 22-17 with 30 minutes to play.
Ravutamada made up for his earlier brainfog by showing a clean pair of heels to run in Fiji’s third try, the conversion making it a one-point game.
As an increasingly error-strewn Fiji side tired, Ryan Elias then went over for Wales’ third try from a line-out maul.
Sam Costelow hit the extras to hand Tandy’s team a two-score advantage with 14 minutes to play.
Eddie James was on hand to put the cherry on the cake with a sixth Welsh try at the death for what was an ultimately comfortable win over a Fiji side whose attacking promise was undone by an ill-performing set-piece and unforced handling errors.
