Debutant Kemu Valetini’s late penalty in front of the sticks allowed the Drua to defeat the defending champions 25-24 in Lautoka.
It’s a first ever win for the Fijian Drua over the Crusaders, and a hard fought one at that. They certainly deserve the accolade after such a great game, with an energetic home crowd cheering them on every step of the way.
The Drua will take huge confidence from this as they head back to Australia to take on the Queensland Reds in Brisbane, while the Crusaders have a Kiwi derby against the Blues in a rematch of last year’s final up in Auckland.
The Crusaders struggled a little with their handling and their discipline today, with the errors gifting the home side the opportunities to get into the right areas of the pitch as well.
The Drua pounced on loose ball, and often opted to take the quick tap rather than the lineout off penalties, even from outside of the red zone to go for a run instead of slowing things down with the set piece.
They are tough to defend in open play, but the Crusaders defense did well to prevent them from getting over the line on a couple of occasions where they looked sure to score.
The Drua’s sweet spot was really in broken play.
They welcomed the Crusaders’ kicking, securing the ball well and charging right back up into contact, sometimes up the wide channels where there was space and sometimes right up the guts in the midfield, resulting in some huge hits.
Their handling and offloading was epic, keeping the ball alive and drawing in the defense to open up space for the support players to run into.
The Crusaders really had the edge at the set pieces. In the first half they were forcing the Drua backwards at scrum time — that levelled out a little after the break — and put in some great rolling mauls off the lineouts, two of which yielded tries.
The Drua looked a bit better at scrum time after the break, but their lineouts were a problem.
A number of their feeds were picked off by the Crusaders, and they sent a couple of balls straight over the top that half the time landed in the wrong hands.
It’s pandemonium in Lautoka as the Fijian Drua celebrate their first ever win over the Crusaders!
What. A. Match! It was tight throughout the game, with the biggest margin on the scoreboard just 12 to the Crusaders early on.
The Drua finally hit their stride in the second quarter, put a try on the board before the break, and almost added a second that would have levelled the score going into halftime.
The managed to secure that try after the break, and then hit the front as they added two more to their tally.
The Crusaders fought back with two of their own to reclaim a 2-point lead, but the error from the visitors right in front of the sticks with the clock in the red cost them the victory!
