Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
NZ NZ

Ill-disciplined Drua pummeled by Michael Hooper-boosted Waratahs

By AAP
(Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)

Wallabies captain Michael Hooper has made a successful comeback as the NSW Waratahs crushed an ill-disciplined Fijian Drua 38-14 to keep their Super Rugby Pacific finals hopes alive.

ADVERTISEMENT

Hooper played the entire second half in his first outing since suffering a foot injury in Australia’s spring tour loss to Eddie Jones’ England at Twickenham last November.

The champion openside flanker made an immediate impact but really didn’t need to as the Drua proved their own worst enemy at Cbus Super Stadium on Friday night.

Video Spacer

Are the Brumbies the team to beat in Super Rugby Pacific?

Video Spacer

Are the Brumbies the team to beat in Super Rugby Pacific?

The Drua spent half an hour playing a man short after their normally inspirational captain Nemani Nagusa was red-carded for a late and high tackle on Tane Edmed, then halfback Frank Lomani copped a yellow for a third illegal tackle.

The Waratahs punished the Drua immediately after both dismissals, piling on 24 points in the influential duo’s absence.

Related

The scores were locked at 7-7 when Nagusa was given his marching orders, after speed machine Vinaya Habosi’s lovely counter-attack strike cancelled out Dylan Pietsch’s 15th-minute try for the Waratahs.

But Hooper’s impressive fill-in No 7 Charlie Gamble capitalised on a NSW driving maul a minute barely after the Drua lost their captain and No 8.

ADVERTISEMENT

Hooker David Porecki and stand-in captain Jed Holloway also crossed while Nagusa was cooling off to give the Tahs a 24-7 lead that they would never relinquish.

Playing his first match for NSW since the final round of the 2020 Super Rugby AU season, after a stint in Japan with Toyota Verblitz before his injury, Hooper scored less than a minute after Lomani was yellow-carded.

From 31-7 down, there was no coming back for the Drua as the Waratahs climbed to fourth on the table, temporarily at least, before a bye next week, then a trip to Perth to play the Western Force.

– Darren Walton

ADVERTISEMENT

Join free

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | Episode 6

Sam Warburton | The Big Jim Show | Full Episode

Japan Rugby League One | Sungoliath v Eagles | Full Match Replay

Japan Rugby League One | Spears v Wild Knights | Full Match Replay

Boks Office | Episode 10 | Six Nations Final Round Review

Aotearoa Rugby Podcast | How can New Zealand rugby beat this Ireland team

Beyond 80 | Episode 5

Rugby Europe Men's Championship Final | Georgia v Portugal | Full Match Replay

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
FEATURE
FEATURE Andy Christie: 'Diversity breeds strength in a group rather than weakness' Andy Christie: 'Diversity breeds strength in a group rather than weakness'
Search