Brumbies head coach Stephen Larkham lauded the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua team’s performance on Saturday night.
The home side secured a hard-fought 28-20 victory, keeping their hopes of a home semi-final alive.
Larkham praised the Fijian Drua’s display as one of the best performances of the Super Rugby Pacific Round this season.
“They were good, probably one of their best performances if you look at their other games coming into this game, they were entirely a different side.
“Their contest at the breakdown, they were dangerous ball carriers but tonight we knew they were dangerous with those tackles putting a lot of pressure on us when we had the ball their line speed and had the bulk of possessions and territory throughout the game,” Larkham said.
Larkham conceded that the Drua applied pressure across various aspects of the match, resulting in his side conceding numerous penalties to the visitors.
“They certainly played well but on the other side I thought our guys defended well; at multiple times we were under a lot of pressure and giving away penalties.
“We started well and it seemed that everything is on track to be where we want to be, but I was pleased of how we finished the game, we found confidence on how we finished but they made it really tough tonight,” head coach added.
Larkham noted a couple of instances of offsides, failure to roll away, hands on the ground, and failure to release, which could have been avoided.
He also commended Fijian Drua’s defensive efforts and their effectiveness as ball carriers.
“We spoke about it at half time, they just put us under pressure, they had outstanding ball carriers tonight, breaking tackle putting us a lot under pressure giving us hard time to handle.
“We got ourselves in trouble with the penalties, but we defended exceptionally well in our line,” he said.
The Brumbies will face the Waratahs this week while the Drua will fly to Perth today to meet the bottom-placed Western Force.
