A STRONG second-half shift by the Auckland Blues saw the Fijian Drua fade away to 40-15 at Eden Park on Saturday.
The Drua showed courage to keep up with the pace of the game in the first half. The Blues then picked up the intensity with their huge forward pack doing the most damage in scrums and lineouts to drown the Drua forwards.
Fijian Drua head coach Glen Jackson acknowledged his team’s efforts, but the Auckland Blues showed why they are one of the top teams in Super Rugby.
“We knew what the Blues were going to do. We were right in their faces in the first 40 and doing some good stuff there. But at Eden Park against the Blues is never easy. They keep going for the full 80”, said Jackson.
“They’ve got a strong driving maul. A bit of fatigue kicked in with some of our boys, so we were on the back foot defending mauls for a fair bit of the game. Their forward pack has dominated the competition for the past two to three years.”
Jackson highlighted that losing their captain, Frank Lomani, in the 50th minute was the key turning point of the game.
“Unfortunately, we had some big injuries in the second half with Frank coming off.”
“We had a good chance to score, but they turned it over and scored a 100-meter try. It’s the little margins like that that make a huge difference between a champion side against a team that’s just competing,” said Jackson.
“And when we don’t quite look after the ball, we give away penalties. It is like a rinse and repeat of getting back into your own 22 to try and defend a rolling maul.”
The standout player for the Drua was the inside center Iosefo Namoce. The 23-year-old racked up impressive numbers in his post-match stats: He made 13 carries. His post-contact meters gained were 66. He had three significant line-breaks, beat seven defenders, and won two key turnovers.
“We’ve got a young squad, and we are five years into the competition. So when you’re playing against champion teams like that, you can see what we can do. We just had some basic errors that we didn’t quite get right down the left-hand side,’’ Jackson said.
Ponipate Loganimasi and Kitione Salawa were involved in a couple of crucial handling errors on the left wing.
Timestamp for Points
Seven minutes: Try to the Blues, Malachi Wrampling. Conversion successful.
17 minutes: Try to the Drua, Etonia Waqa. Conversion successful.
19 minutes: Try to the Blues, Bradley Slater. Conversion successful.
35 minutes: Try the Drua, Mesake Vocevoce. Conversion missed.
Half-time score: Blues 14-Drua 12.
44 minutes: Penalty Goal by the Drua. Kemueli Valetini
50 minutes: Try to the Blues, Bradley Slater. Conversion successful.
58 minutes: Try to the Blues, Codemeru Vai. Conversion missed.
64 minutes: Try to the Blues, Payton Spencer. Conversion successful.
79 minutes: Try to the Blues, Caleb Clarke. Conversion successful.
Full-time score: Blues 40-Drua 15.
*All Blues conversions were kicked by Beauden Barrett while Kemueli Valetini kicked for the Fijian Drua.