The NSW Waratahs have kept their Super Rugby Pacific finals hopes alive by beating the Fijian Drua 50-35 in Suva.<\/p>\n
NSW coach Dan McKellar made a plethora of changes for Saturday’s clash at HFC Bank Stadium, but was dealt a late blow when the Wallabies’ utility back Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was ruled out with hamstring tightness weeks after returning from a two-month-long hamstring injury.<\/p>\n
McKellar reaped the rewards of his team’s transformation though, as the Waratahs shot out to a 29-point halftime lead before the Drua stepped up in the second half to salvage a blowout.<\/p>\n
The bonus-point win is precious for the NSW-based team, having lost seven of their past nine encounters going into the match, and they now sit one point adrift of the sixth-placed Queensland Reds, who take on the Western Force later in Perth, with two rounds remaining.<\/p>\n
Halfback Teddy Wilson was busy , while hooker Ioane Moananu crashed over twice to help the Tahs end their dismal 15-game losing streak outside of Australia.<\/p>\n
“I thought the partnership between Teddy and (Jack) Bowen was awesome to see,” NSW captain Matt Philip told FBC Sports after Bowen made his first start of the campaign.<\/p>\n
“(I’m) very pleased we could stick to how we wanted to play this week. We haven’t been able to do that for the last three or so games.”<\/p>\n
Fresh off a bye, the Drua needed a win to keep their finals hopes intact, but leaky defence, along with a sea of turnovers, cruelled their chances.<\/p>\n
“We wanted to start fast, but unfortunately it took us the whole 40 minutes of the first half to actually get our rhythm,” co-captain Temo Mayanavanua said.<\/p>\n
“There were a couple of key moments that we weren’t urgent enough in.”<\/p>\n
The Waratahs crossed first when Harry Potter got on the receiving end of a sneaky pass from Moananu, before Moananu scored his own five-pointer when he capitalised on a rolling maul.<\/p>\n
After a busy start, Max Jorgensen was rewarded when he pounced on a Bowen grubber in the 19th minute, but the Drua responded through Mesake Doge.<\/p>\n
Wilson, Sid Harvey and Angus Scott-Young piled further misery on the home team, each scoring a try as the Waratahs opened up a 36-7 lead at the break.<\/p>\n
Moananu wrestled over in the 44th minute, but despite losing Emosi Tuqiri to injury, lock Elia Canakaivata and flanker Kitione Salawa crossed to close the deficit.<\/p>\n
Fijian Apolosi Ranawai notched a five-pointer to bring up the visitors’ half-century before Tuidraki Samusamuvodr, and Mayanavanua scored consolation tries for the hosts.<\/p>\n
NSW Waratahs 50\u00a0(Tries: Potter, Moananu 2, Jorgensen, Harvey, Wilson, Scott-Young, Ranawai; Cons: Bowen 3, Harvey 2) def Fijian Drua 35\u00a0(Tries:\u00a0Doge, Canakaivata, Salawa, Samusamuvodre, Mayanavanua; Cons: Valetini 4, Armstrong-Ravula)<\/p>\n
Teams<\/p>\n
Fijian Drua:\u00a015 Isikeli Rabitu, 14 Frank Lomani (co-captain), 13 Tuidraki Samusamuvodre, 12 Virimi Vakatawa, 11 Manasa Mataele, 10 Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula, 9 Issak Fines-Leleiwasa, 8 Elia Canakaivata, 7 Kitione Salawa, 6 Etonia Waqa, 5 Temo Mayanavanua (co-captain), 4 Isoa Nasilasila, 3 Mesake Doge, 2 Zuriel Togiatama, 1 Peni Ravai
\n\tReplacements:\u00a016 Kavaia Tagivetaua, 17 Emosi Tuqiri, 18 Samuela Tawake, 19 Mesake Vocevoce, 20 Vilive Miramira, 21 Isoa Tuwai, 22 Philip Baselala, 23 Kemu Valetini<\/p>\n
Waratahs:\u00a015 Max Jorgensen, 14 Harry Potter, 13 Triston Reilly, 12 Lawson Creighton, 11 Sid Harvey, 10 Jack Bowen, 9 Teddy Wilson, 8 Angus Scott-Young, 7 Charlie Gamble, 6 Clem Halaholo, 5 Miles Amatosero, 4 Matt Philip (captain), 3 Dan Botha, 2 Ioane Moananu, 1 Jack Barrett
\n\tReplacements:\u00a016 Oniti Finau, 17 Isaac Kailea, 18 Apolosi Ranawai, 19 Ben Grant, 20 Jamie Adamson, 21 Michael McDonald, 22 Jack Debreczeni, 23 George Poolman<\/p>\n
Referee:\u00a0James Doleman
\n\tAssistant referees:\u00a0Marcus Playle, Fraser Hannon
\n\tTMO:\u00a0Aaron Paterson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NSW Waratahs have kept their Super Rugby Pacific finals hopes alive by beating the Fijian Drua 50-35…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-674482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}