The Drua eye an upset on-field while 'unifying and uniting a nation' off it

Super Rugby Pacific’s great success story is undoubtedly the Fijian Drua. The expansion side have earned a playoff birth in just their second season in the competition, having established a fortress at home in which they boast a dominant winning rate.

The heat of Fiji and it’s crowd will be absent for the side’s first knockout clash however as the team have ventured south to Christchurch to face the reigning champion Crusaders in the second vs seventh seed quarter-final.

The match will be available free-to-air in Fiji and Indra Singh from the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation says you can bet on all eyes being glued to the screens across the nation.

That’s because the excitement and pride the country has developed for their Super Rugby team is overwhelming, and Singh offered some context to exactly what that looks like ahead of Saturday’s match.

“If I was to put it in terms of unifying and uniting a nation,” he told The Platform. “The Drua are our number one bet right now. They are doing everything that every politician and every person has tried to do in the past and not succeeded.

“This Drua outfit has got the nation to be one every time they’ve played.

“Last weekend when we played the Reds in Suva, everywhere you’d see in Suva from the morning, it was just Blue. People were out in merchandise. I’ve not seen this much merchandise for any sporting team in Fiji.”

It’ll be a harsh acclimation for the Drua who landed in Christchurch just one night prior to their match, they’ll likely face a single-digit temperature and an expectant Christchurch crowd.

23 of the Drua squad will be riding the high of being selected in the Flying Fijian’s first training squad of the year, with the opportunity to make the World Cup squad no doubt lending further motivation to the occasion.

While the Crusaders finished with the second-best record in the competition, one of their four losses came at the hands of Fiji, who punished Scott Robertson’s men for resting some of their top players.

“They get one night to get used to the cold that they’ll face in Christchurch tomorrow,” Singh continued, previewing the match. “They’ll run out against a hurting Crusaders outfit which lost in Fiji.

“The (Drua have) been fantastic and phenomenal at home, playing under the heat, winning five out of the six matches at home. But, it’s the consistency of playing away from home where they have not been able to string together positive results.

“It’s a grand achievement, everyone is really proud of the team for making it to the quarters but you’ve got to put in a solid shift to put something impressive in to match that.

“But it’s finals footy, one bounce of the ball could go in the favour and an upset could be created. But the Crusaders definitely start as the top bet in this one.”