Sloppy Drua no show in Wellington
Mis- tackles, poor handling and lack of thrust in the backline were the contributing factors in the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua side’s 67-5 drubbing at the hands of the Hurricanes yesterday.
The humiliating defeat at the Sky Stadium in Wellington is the Drua’s biggest loss in the Super Rugby Pacific competition.
Drua captain Meli Derenalagi said, they did not play to their game pattern.
“I’m speechless right now,” he said. “There are lots of improvements to be done from this game.
“After this game we’ve to go back and regroup. We’ve to start things seriously and treat every game as the final.
“Today, we saw the lack of execution in our game.
“We’ll do a review and work on the areas that we were lacking in.
“We’ll be hard on the players as we start our preparations tomorrow for the next game.
“We’ll work twice as hard to prepare for the game ahead of us.”
The Fijians tried their best to hold the Hurricanes at bay from the first whistle.
Flankers Kitione Salawa and Derenalagi were quick to the breakdowns and managed to win turnover balls
It was only a matter of time for the Hurricanes to start piling their points.
Drua centre Apisalome Vota twice lost the ball when tackled and was not given room to run.
Halfback Simione Kuruvoli passed the Head Injury Assessment (HIA) test after coping a high tackle from Isaia WalkerLeawere in the first half.
The Hurricanes led 26-0 at halftime.
The Drua’s only points game came from a try scored by replacement winger Onisi Ratave.
The Drua take on Moana Pasifika on Saturday at the CommBank Stadium in Sydney.