'We need to learn quickly': Fijian Drua coach's stern message after Waratahs loss
Fijian Drua assistant coach Brad Harris has issued a stern message to his players following their 38-14 Super Rugby Pacific loss to the Waratahs on the Gold Coast on Friday.
The defeat was the sixth loss from seven games for the new expansion franchise, who were forced to play with 13 men at one point after captain Nemani Nagusa was sent off and halfback Frank Lomani was sin binned for dangerous tackles.
During their respective absences, the Waratahs scored four of their six tries to put the result beyond doubt by the 52nd minute.
Speaking to media after the match, Harris – who was filling in for head coach Mick Byrne after he tested positive for Covid earlier in the week – said he was proud of the Drua’s effort, but made it clear improvements are needed for the weeks ahead.
“I haven’t had a chance to talk to Frank, but certainly I think we can’t fault the effort of the boys. The effort of the boys is there every week,” Harris said.
“We’re finishing the game strongly, and I think that part of our learning and our growth is that when pressure comes on in a game, we need to solve together, not individually, so I think that’s something that the boys are learning as they get more experienced at this level, and that is a big step-up for a lot of them.
“In terms of going down to 13 men in the second half, that was critical. We knew that at the five-minute mark in the second half, we were going to go to 15 [players].
“At that stage, it was 17-7, so we were very much in the game at that point, but unfortunately we then went down to 13 men, we conceded a try, and instead of going back to 15 men, we went back to 14 men for the next 10 minutes.
“That’s the thing at this level. If we don’t adapt quickly and learn quickly, the scoreboard pressure will kill us in those instances, so we’ll talk about that with the boys and we’ll continue to have faith in them.
“We’ll continue to work with them because we know they’re talented, we know they’re growing, we know they’re learning, so there’s a lot of positive stuff, but we need to learn quickly because, as I said, we’ve got the Brumbies, who are a fantastic team, and then we’ve got five teams from New Zealand who will be sweating on mistakes if we continue to give them the ball.”
Harris pinpointed the slow starts the Drua have got off to in their matches as a key area of their game that needs improvement before their run of fixtures against the table-topping Brumbies, the five Kiwi teams and fellow newcomers Moana Pasifika.
“Unfortunately we don’t seem to be learning how to start a game at this level,” Harris said.
“Our ball security let us down in that first 20 minutes four or five times, turned the ball over, didn’t allow ourselves to build the game that we wanted to build and try and apply some pressure to the Waratahs, but that’s a pretty consistent theme over the last number of weeks.
“We need to have a look at that this week, ask some questions of ourselves and learn to start the game a lot better, certainly.”
Drua first-five Teti Tela agreed with his coach’s assessment of his side, who were forced to relocate their camp to the Gold Coast on Wednesday due to rising floodwaters in New South Wales.
Tela and Harris refused to attribute their loss to those off-field distractions, though, with the former asserting that the Drua must eliminate basic errors from their game if they are to pick up a second win this season.
“All it is is the last pass or someone to finish off that easy catch-and-pass or whatever it might be, and we’re over for a try,” Tela said.
“We’ve always got that belief. We can score when we want to score, but, as Brad’s saying, it comes down to those basics – catching the ball, the knock-ons, just the little one percent mistakes, the basic mistakes are really costing us, especially early in the game.
“I have belief in the boys from the first minute right through to the 80th minute, but it’s just about holding onto the ball for us at the moment.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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.
30 Go to comments