The Fijian Drua yesterday made history by beating the Queensland Reds 34-17 in Suva to qualify for the quarter-finals of Super Rugby Pacific for the first time.
The match was the first between the Drua and the Reds in Fiji, harking back to the days of the Super 6 tournament when Queensland state teams regularly played the Fiji national team.
Backed by a raucous home crowd, the Drua broke out of a 17-17 stalemate at halftime to score three second-half tries while holding the Reds scoreless after the break. When the final whistle sounded, Drua fans shook the National Stadium as they danced to Tina Turner’s Simply the Best.
Photo: AFP
“You can see how happy we are now,” Drua captain Meli Derenalagi said. “Hats off to the soldiers [players] behind me for doing their duty today. First of all a big bula vaka levu [many thanks] to our fans who came out in numbers today, just to support their home team.”
There were no signs in an even first half that the Drua would so thoroughly dominate the second. They outplayed the Reds at set pieces and buckled the defense with constant, strong ball-running so that the visitors could not easily escape their own half.
The win was triumphantly sealed by a try to star backrower Joe Tamani, who dashed 50m to finish a breakout as the crowd roared its approval.
“Obviously it was a real tough second half,” Reds captain Tate McDermott said. “We competed in the first half, but just weren’t in it in the second half.”
The Drua scored the first try of the match after only four minutes when Selestino Ravataumada charged down a clearing kick by Reds winger Filipo Daugunu, and collected the bounce to score.
The Reds responded immediately with a try to Ryan Smith, but the Drua went ahead again with a try to Kelaveti Ravouvou.
Fraser McReight scored for the Reds, who edged further ahead with an O’Connor penalty. The Drua leveled the score at halftime with a try to Vilive Miramira.
The second half belonged to the Drua, who added tries to Misake Doge and Tevita Ikanivere as the Reds lost discipline and McReight went to the sin bin. Tamani’s try was a glorious finale.
The Drua win moved them up to seventh, but a Western Force win over the Waikato Chiefs — the game was to finish after press time last night — would have put the Fijian side eighth.
The Reds were left waiting on the result of the Chiefs-Force game to learn whether they would play in the quarters.
The Otago Highlanders were pushed out of eighth place after they missed their chance to seal a post-season berth in a 19-6 loss to the Auckland Blues on Friday.
In other games yesterday, the Wellington Hurricanes defeated the Canterbury Crusaders 27-26, the ACT Brumbies downed the Melbourne Rebels 33-17 and Moana Pasifika won their first game of the season, beating the NSW Waratahs 33-24.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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