Fiji wracked up a 13-7 lead at half-time, with Scarlets centre Ford giving Wales hope after a Josateki Lalagavesi penalty and Metuisela Talebula converted try had opened up a ten-point Fijian advantage.

Taylor’s juniors were guilty of concentration lapses and giving away sloppy infringements as wing Lalagavesi took his penalty tally to five after the interval.

As the game ebbed away from the Welsh, Scarlets prop Jones and London Irish-bound Shingler crossed but with Matthew Morgan’s kicking radar off, it was too little too late.

Talebula and replacement scrum-half Eliki Sicinilawa went over to add to Wales’ misery and Taylor pulled no punches in his post-match analysis.

“We totally underperformed and there are no excuses,” he said.

“We lost our shape very quickly, we weren’t direct enough in our play and we didn’t follow the game plan.

“We kicked away too much ball, we made handling errors and basically enabled Fiji to score points through our mistakes.

“We have to look hard at ourselves as a group after this performance.”

Taylor’s side will now aim to lift themselves for the seventh place playoff with Ireland at Treviso on Sunday.