The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua team is playing for consistency after scoring its historic first Super Rugby Pacific 31-26 victory against the Rebels in Australia last Friday.
The Fijian camp has cut celebrations short knowing the test had just begun in the inaugural season of the restructured annual international competition.
Drua coach Mick Byrne is preparing the Drua this weekend against the Australian champion, Queensland Reds which beat the Rebels 23-5, Waratahs 20-16 and Force 29-16 in the past three rounds.
He said the focus was to get consistency against the superiors of the competition using the Fijian flair. “They (Reds) will be packed with some Wallabies, but we need to keep our physicality on the ball carrier,” Byrne said.
“This week is a big week for us against the Reds and we need to start well on the line out and hang onto the ball again this Friday.”
Last Friday’s victory was recorded in the history books of Super Rugby as the Drua’s fighting spirit popped up mixed with free-flowing rugby, soul searching, solid defence and teamwork by a bunch of young and unknown players.
Byrne said getting their performance right this weekend could shake Brad Thorne’s side which has Fijians Seru Uru and injured Filipo Daugunu and Suliasi Vunivalu.
“We have been focused on performance. We are a brand new side, we only got our performance to gauge. We believe if we get our performance right, we are going to be competitive.”
The unbeaten Reds, meanwhile, is also injury hit with lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto replaced in the start last weekend after an ankle injury.
He replaced Tate McDermott who also suffered similar injury in week two. Also injured are backrower Angus Scott-Young and hooker Alex Mafi.
The Fijian Drua is scheduled to play the Queensland Reds at 8.45pm (Fiji time) on Friday.
