ONLY time will tell.
This is the word from Moana Pasifika head coach Tana Umaga in how his side will fare against the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua in their 2026 Shop N Save Super Rugby Pacific round one fixture.
Umaga and his team arrived into the country at the Nadi International Airport yesterday and the coach and former New Zealand All Blacks captain shared how his side would approach their foes in the Battle of the Pacific.
“We’re confident in our game at the moment and only time will tell,” Umaga told the media at the airport.
“It’s good to be confident and I think we’ve got to have confidence in the work that we’ve done in training and we’ve had some good training weeks.”
Moana Pasifika, unlike their opponents, only had one pre-season trial match leading up to round one, against the Highlanders in Queenstown, New Zealand last week.
The Highlanders won 41-31.
Meeting the Fijian Drua in Lautoka means a return to Churchill Park, where the two teams last met in 2023.
Since then, the Fortress has been without a fiery regional contest of the two sides and with its return, the opening round of the competition there has been dubbed as the “Battle of the Pacific.”
And as competition opens with the highly-anticipated fixture, Fijian Drua head coach Glen Jackson has emphasised how each match is of the highest importance.
“This year, it’s about every game and putting our best team that we feel is right for that game on the field,” Jackson shared on Wednesday.
It will also mark a reunion for the two teams as both coaches once played in Super Rugby Pacific and coach Jackson has worked with Umaga previously.
“As a player; played against him many times and he was just a freak of nature. Really. In terms of how he played.”
“He’s obviously turned into a very good coach.”
The match kicks off tomorrow at 3.30pm.
