Fijian Drua’s magic in ‘no love lost’ clash
SATURDAY’S The Fiji Times page read, ‘No love lost’.
Indeed, there was no love lost as the Swire Shipping Fiji Drua beat the Crusaders and the result went into history books after creating the biggest upset in the history of Super Rugby Pacific.
Hammered 61-3 by the 13-times Super Rugby champions in their only previous meeting in May last year, the Drua went 12-0 down early in the contest after the Crusaders scored two tries through rolling front mauls. Memories of the 61-3 bashing came alight as the Crusaders raced to an early lead. However, the Drua staged a brilliant comeback.
They stormed back with unanswered tries from Iosefo Masi, Ilaisa Droasese, Joseva Tamani and Eroni Sau to take a 22-12 lead with 13 minutes remaining. Tamani was electrifying, while Sau and Masi were devastating. Masi’s pick up was scintillating. The Crusaders rallied with a try from Sevu Reece and another from a rolling maul for Ioane Moananu, for the 24-22 lead with seconds to go. The crowd rallied, and the “never say die attitude” of the hosts resulted in the visitors knocking on from the ensuing kick-off to give the Drua another chance, and they worked calmly through several phases before the Crusaders were penalised to give Kemu Valetini the chance to secure a famous victory. The win was epic. The Drua came out guns blazing in the second half and did the job. Many loved the belief, passion and determination with which the hosts played.
The loss at the hands of the Drua was a second defeat in three matches this season for the Crusaders. The Drua looked dangerous with possession, and they capitalised with their skill, offloads and running play. Furthermore, the heat had a strong influence on the game with handling errors aplenty, mainly for the visiting Crusaders.
The first half was a territory battle with the Crusaders coming out thanks to their dominant rolling maul, but the Drua embraced the occasion in the second half and gave their fans plenty to cheer about, playing some superb rugby in broken play.
The handling errors continued to mount up for the Crusaders and the Drua capitalised, using the high kick to good effect as the Crusaders struggled to claim the ball staring into the afternoon sun. Ultimately the pressure of the Drua’s physicality had the Crusaders scrambling.
The passionate fans roared and the Drua’s discipline didn’t let the reigning champs off the hook. For decades, Fijian rugby has been a resource pillaged by other countries, but the admission of the Drua to Super Rugby last season finally gave the players of the island nation an elite local pathway in the 15-man game.
Home matches last season were played mostly in Australia because of COVID travel restrictions and in the 14 matches of their inaugural campaign, the Drua managed wins only against fellow strugglers the Melbourne Rebels and Moana Pasifika.
The Crusaders, who had three Fiji-born players in their team, have won 13 Super Rugby titles of various descriptions and have rarely, lost more than two matches a season since Scott Robertson took over as coach in 2017.
The brave effort from the Drua shows the growth in the side over the last 12 months.
Rajnesh Lingam
is a regular contributor to this newspaper and the views expressed in this article are his and not of