But they sent a message to world rugby with a gutsy effort against the All Blacks in Dunedin.
The visiting side trailed the All Blacks 31-23 with 20 minutes remaining before the toll of travelling and spending two weeks in managed isolation robbed them of some vitality in the final quarter.
The All Blacks eased away to win 57-23.
Fiji coach Vern Cotter was thrilled with his side’s performance.
"We are really happy with the effort," he said.
"They really put themselves around the park and never gave up. It is a performance we can build on.
"The ingredients are there."
His side faded, though. How much of that was down to the travel and isolation was unclear, he said.
"You could see at the end we were getting tired and a few gaps were opening up.
"It is just something we need to look at and work on."
Fiji had planned on wearing a special Flying Fijians jersey carrying the message "Vaccinate Fiji".
The Pacific Island nation is struggling to contain the virus, but a late decision was reached not to wear the jerseys.
Cotter described it as a "delicate subject for some" and the idea to wear the jerseys was "sprung on the players quite late in the piece" without much consultation.
"It was probably better to just have a clean jersey at this stage and spend some time on how best we want to communicate on this matter, and how comfortable the players and everybody are in communicating with regard to that."
