Super Rugby newbies Fijian Drua have put the competition on notice by snatching a 28-26 win over the Melbourne Rebels in their first and only external trial match on Thursday night.
The Drua, one of two expansion clubs along with the New Zealand-based Moana Pasifika, trailed 26-14 in Melbourne before flanker Joseva Tamani barged over following some strong forward play and winger Vinaya Habosi scored a runaway try under the posts to set up Caleb Muntz’s winning conversion.
“They hung in there in the middle of the game when it got tough. They just kept getting up,” proud Drua coach Mick Byrne said.
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“They just kept getting up. Towards the end of the game we had a few boys going down with cramp but they just kept working away and their opportunity came.
“The spirit was there and we’re happy with the effort. The score, it’s a preseason game but it’s just great the effort was there and the boys are going to be happy with the performance.”
The Drua now prepare for their historic season opener against the NSW Waratahs in Parramatta on February 18.
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COVID-19 roadblocks meant the Drua – who played in Australia’s National Rugby Championship before graduating to Super Rugby – have based themselves in NSW’s Lennox Head, rather than Suva, to prepare for the big dance.
The Drua opened the scoring in the second minute through Test hooker Tevita Ikanivere and after conceding an intercept try regained the lead with a strike from pacy winger Kitione Ratu.
Melbourne then scored the next three tries before the Drua’s late rally.
“The boys have got enthusiasm to play the game and we’re just trying to help them understand that we know how we want to play and under the pressure of the game, being able to find what we’re trying to do,” Byrne said.
“They’ve worked really, really hard at their fitness and to be able to finish the game off like that is due reward for everything they’ve done. There’s things we’ve got to get better at, we know that, and the boys are really up for it.
“We’ll have a look at some of the set-piece work we did. We turned over a couple of scrums, we lost a couple of maul tries, we’ll just keep working around those sorts of things. But for their first game, some boys were playing their first game since October 2020, so it’s a big step up today for them and now they realise what it’s like.”
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