THE Vinod Patel Ba senior side put up a courageous performance against Nadi at Prince Charles Park last week, but failed to turn their opportunities into points when it counted, leaving the hosts to triumph 38-23 and move on to the Skipper Cup Semi-finals.
“We started so well with that early penalty from a scrum, and then Josateki Vale’s try in the corner,” BRU Secretary Gaby Kautoga noted. “Indeed, our scrum was dominant throughout against a big Nadi unit, though we found ourselves being penalized so the boys tended to tap and go instead.”
Ba lost influential fly-half Waisea Nacuqu to injury midway through the first half.
“That was a big blow,” Kautoga noted. “Wise was conducting the play, setting up Jo Vale’s try with a clever grubber kick and leading most of our attacking moves.”
Still, as Nadi picked up two tries of their own and clipped through three penalty goals, Ba kept the game close with Allen Osborne scoring a pushover try in the first half, his eighth try of the campaign to leave Ba trailing 18-23 at the break. Sailosi Narube scored in the second half.
The second half was a tale of ‘so close, so far’ for Ba.
Ba had the lion’s share of possession and territory in the second 40, but a weak line-out proved their undoing.
“I lost count of the number of line-outs we botched,” Talatala admitted. “Then the one that was perfectly executed for Arimela Noa to dive over the try-line was called back incorrectly by the assistant referee.”
“We have seen the video and it’s clearly a try, but what can we do? That would have put us within 3 points of Nadi with five minutes to play. We have suggested to FRU that for the knock-out stages they have in-goal touch judges who look down the 5-metre line at line-outs.”
In the end, Nadi wing Etuate Sitiveni ran off to score in the corner and bloat the final scoreline to 38-23.
“That’s our season done,” Talatala concluded. “We are happy that we made the Quarter-finals after some difficult experiences this season, losing games we should have won.”
“We played very well in parts of most games but failed to register enough wins. Now we will prepare our off-season programme for the boys and ensure that we come back stronger in 2027.”
