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Tough welcome to Super Rugby Pacific for Fijian Drua in Waratahs clash
Losers no more, the NSW Waratahs have opened the inaugural Super Rugby Pacific season with a drought-breaking 40-10 victory over popular and passionate newcomers Fijian Drua.
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Backing up their impressive unbeaten trial run, the Waratahs ran in five tries to one on Friday night to banish at least some of the bitter memories of last year’s humiliating winless campaign.
The bonus-point triumph snapped a 13-match losing streak stretching some 538 days since the Waratahs beat the Melbourne Rebels in their final game of the 2020 Super Rugby AU season.
For how long remains to be seen, but the big win also elevated the Waratahs into unfamiliar territory as early competition leaders.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve put on a performance like that, that we’re really proud of,” said Waratahs captain and man of the match Jake Gordon.
“It’s been a long pre-season, it’s good to see the boys put on a performance like that against a challenging Fijian team.”
With high hopes of crashing the Waratahs’ party, the Drua must have felt right at home in steamy, Suva-like conditions before kick-off as an army of Fijian fans flooded through Sydney’s CommBank Stadium gates for the historic encounter.
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The Fijian fanatics were treated to an emotion-charged performance of ‘Na Bole’ from the Drua, a spiritual pre-game war dance designed to steel the competition debutants for battle.
It looked to have done the trick early.
Renowned for their flamboyance, the Drua also brought physicality to the equation as inspired captain and No.8 Nemani Nagusa engaged in a set-to with Waratahs hardman Lachie Swinton.
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As promised, though, the Waratahs, intent on not falling into any Fiji-style razzle-dazzle, were happy to take the first points on offer through the trusty boot of flyhalf Ben Donaldson.
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The Tahs’ first try, in the 13th minute, then came through old-fashioned pick and driving with Will Harris burrowing over next to the posts and Donaldson making it 10-0.
Donaldson kept the scoreboard ticking over with two more penalties before hooker David Forecki cashed in on a strong Waratahs driving maul.
Struggling at set-pieces, the Drua’s only points of the half came from a Baden Kerr penalty as the home team took a commanding 21-3 lead to the break.
If there was any doubt about the Waratahs going on with the job, they were dispelled barely a minute into the second half when prop Angus Bell offloaded like a playmaker to put Lalakai Foketi over in the corner.
The Drua’s No 1 was more dumb bell a minute later, loosehead Jone Koroiduadua yellow-carded for a foolish lifting clean-out on Porecki to leave the Fijians a man short for 10 minutes.
Bell crossed himself when the Drua were a player down before Gordon iced his dazzling display with a runaway intercept effort.
Asked what the Waratahs learnt during their depressing 2021 season, Gordon said: “How resilient the group is and how many actual good blokes we have in our team.
“To go through a year like that and not have guys back-stabbing each other shows the resilience in the group – and we got paid today.”
Nagusa deservedly had the distinction of scoring the Drua’s historic first try in the competition in the 62nd minute.
But his side, while spirited, was never a match for the Waratahs in their maiden outing at Super Rugby level.
– Darren Walton
Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments