ASINATE Serevi admitted that defensive lapses in the first half proved costly for the Rooster Chicken Fijian Drua Women as they fell 22-19 to the Queensland Reds at Churchill Park in Lautoka.
“Obviously, we talked about working on our defence this week, but we started late,” Serevi said.
“We made a lot of mistakes in the first half. We picked it up in the second half, but it was a little too late to stay in the game. I think just owning up on defence is something we need to do better.”
The match saw the Drua trail 17-0 at halftime after the Reds capitalized on handling errors and defensive struggles.
Despite struggling early, the Drua found their rhythm in the final 20 minutes, scoring three tries to push the Reds to the brink.
Serevi highlighted the breakdown as another key area for improvement.
“I think we could have definitely executed better at the rucks,” she said.
“That’s something we needed to do better this week to win the game. But unfortunately, you win some, you lose some.”
With fresh legs off the bench, the Drua mounted a fierce comeback in the second half. Serevi credited the impact players for injecting much-needed energy into the team.
“Just fighting back ,that was the message.
“The impact players coming in, they were hungry. The starting lineup knew they had a lot to bring. They had a lot of energy and still had a lot in the tank,” Serevi added.
“We definitely wanted the win today, but we fell short,” Serevi admitted.
“Now, it’s about learning from this and coming back stronger.”
