THE Fijian Drua are back on the road this week as they take on the Auckland Blues in Eden Park this Saturday.
The Fijian Drua have never beaten the Auckland Blues since joining the Super Rugby competition in 2022. Head coach Glen Jackson is adamant his team will step up to the massive challenges awaiting them in New Zealand.
“We are under no illusion that we are going to have two very tough teams who have won Super Rugby continuously. We’ve got to show that we are ready for this competition in these two games,” Jackson said.
But his main concern is how heat protocols restrict the Drua’s attacking abilities and disrupt momentum.
“One thing that we are still not coping well with is the breaks after every 20 minutes, for example, like the game from last weekend. It’s just killing what we want in our game”, said Jackson.
“I’ve gone to SANZAAR plenty of times, and I just find it unbelievable that the heat protocols are around things that we are used to. We are used to the heat, and so it’s not a danger.”
Jackson implied that organisers should consider cold-weather protocols when temperatures fall below 20 degrees Celsius.
Last week, the Drua took a 6-21 drubbing at home against the Reds after significant wins against the Brumbies and the Hurricanes.
The Drua have made changes to their line-up with Kemueli Valetini starting at fly-half ahead of Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula. Epeli Momo returns at Open Wing after a couple of weeks off, and Iosefo Namoce gets his first start since his debut two weeks ago.
“Epeli Momo has come back in from his hamstring injury. The Blues play a lot of educated rugby with huge men who will try to get over the advantage line. Epeli is going to bring us his good defense,” Jackson said.
“We probably kicked away too many balls last week. So we want to go back to the way we want to play, and that’s to run the Blues around and have a good crack at them.”