Wales have taken another big step towards reaching the knockout stages of the Rugby World Cup by beating a determined Fiji 23-13 at the Millennium Stadium.
The Red Dragons missed out on the additional bonus point after crossing over just twice, but the win is enough to take them back to the top of Pool A.
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Buoyed by their gutsy win against England last time out, the hosts were quick out of the blocks and were almost rewarded by a try inside the opening 60 seconds.
George North burst his way to within five metres of the chalk, but Fiji were able to stand firm to keep out their opponents.
The resolve did not last long, however, as just minutes later Gareth Davies did manage to cross over thanks to a fine dummy, with Dan Biggar picking up from where he left off at Twickenham by kicking over the extras.
Ben Volavola did reduce the arrears somewhat when finding the target with his penalty 15 minutes in, killing off the Red Dragons' early momentum, which was not helped by Bradley Davies having to temporarily leave the field due to a head injury.
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There was a big chance for the Flying Fijians to close the gap further when awarded a second penalty within kicking distance of the sticks, but Volavola was unable to match the magic of the injured Nemani Nadolo and fired wide of the target.
Wales really should have put some distance between themselves and their 10th-in-the-world opponents with a quarter of the match played, only for Taulupe Faletau to be denied right on the line by Fiji skipper Akapusi Qera to keep the sides within touching distance.
Warren Gatland's men remained camped deep in the Fiji half for large parts, but it took until eight minutes before the interval until Scott Baldwin capitalised on some good handling from the forwards to scramble over for the game's second score.
Biggar maintained his impressive kicking record at this World Cup from the conversion, building on the 23 points registered against the Red Rose - an all-time high from a Wales player in a single match.
Volavola did pull back three more points for the Southern Hemisphere outfit shortly before the break to give his side a springboard to push on, yet it was the hosts who went into the break the happier of the two.
Much of Fiji's best work in the opening 40 minutes came through Volavola and Asaeli Tikoirotuma, which proved to be the case in the opening few minutes of a cagey start to the second half for the hosts.
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Volavola was again guilty of missing a decent opening in front of the posts, but John McKee's charges soon mounted their strongest attacking move of the afternoon which culminated in Vereniki Goneva touching down for the Fijians' opening score.
As the mistakes started to creep into Wales's game, Fiji began to grow in confidence with just four points now the difference.
The Red Dragons, perhaps wary of the fact that they were dumped out of this competition by Fiji eight years ago, soon found their rhythm once more and were back in control when Biggar relieved some of the pressure by adding a third pen of the contest.
In front of a packed and expectant Welsh crowd, it was the tier-two nation who looked the more likely to add a potentially decisive fourth try, yet they could not quite find a way over the line following a period of domination on the ball.
A close down from Davies to cut out Volavola's punt proved the catalyst for momentum to finally swing back the Red Dragons' way 12 minutes from time, as a Fiji error at the scrum allowed fly-half Biggar to slot home his 13th successful pen of the tournament.
Davies looked to be over for a third score late on, only for referee John Lacey and his fellow officials to adjudge that the ball did not touch the ground, thus killing off the home side's hopes of rescuing a late bonus point.
It mattered little in the grand scheme of things, however, as the game petered out to see Wales take a step closer to the final eight at the expense of their brave opponents, who crash out with one game still to play.
Daniel Lewis
