Kudos to Drua Side, Title Defence Back on Track

Congratulations to the Fiji Airways Fijian Drua side for making it to the Australian National Rugby Championship’s (NRC) semifinal. The defending NRC champion never gave up despite a shaky start in the competition.

Many of their fans had written off their chances of making it to the knockout stages.

But the Senirusi Seruvakula-coached side defied all odds to pull out narrow wins, 40-36 over Melbourne Rising and 26-24 against Queensland Country. This saw the Drua claim third spot on the NRC points table and a semifinal clash against Canberra Vikings. Looking back, it has been a challenging year for Seruvakula.

He had a lost number of key players from last year’s winning team.

First five-eight Alivereti Veitokani and Albert Tuisue joined London Irish. Captain Mosese Voka, Mesulame Dolokoto, Eroni Mawi, Frank Lomani and Veremalua Vugakoto are with the Flying Fijians at the Rugby World Cup.

Prop Luke Tagi has signed up with French Top 14 club Stade Francais and is now in Paris.

Not only that but lock Peni Naulago, Filimoni Seru and Penijamini Makutu were part of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces rugby team that successfully defended the International Defence Rugby Competition Trophy in Tokyo, Japan.

They missed the opening rounds of competition but are back in the squad.

In their absence, Seruvakula took on the challenge and included 19 new players into the 33-member squad.

These were players from the Vodafone Fijian Under-20 squad and those who played consistently during the Skipper Cup Premiership and Vodafone Vanua Championship competitions.

This also was an indicator that the pathway set by the Fiji Rugby Union’s development unit, is working well.

After two draws and a loss at the end of the third round, Seruvakula again made a change by handing the captaincy to veteran prop Joeli Veitayaki as he wanted the pressure off number eight, Eremasi Radrodro, to maximise his performance.

This was the catalyst as the Drua sprung to life and made their comeback.

Although there are areas of play coupled with a few disciplinary issues the Drua need to work on, this is something to be expected, especially when majority of the players are first timers to the NRC.

But no one denies the fact that when we watch them play we’ll be amused with amount of talent the players have and how this augurs well for Fiji rugby in the future.

As of now, it’s best that they are being moulded by a no-nonsense coach like Seruvakula as we offer them our wholehearted support and well-wishers for the semifinal and beyond.