The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua mounted a spirited second-half comeback but were ultimately defeated 50-35 by the NSW Waratahs in an entertaining Super Rugby Pacific clash at HFC Bank Stadium in Suva.<\/p>\n
Playing in front of a passionate home crowd in Suva, the Drua endured a difficult opening half as the Waratahs ran in a series of early tries to take control of the contest.<\/p>\n
The visitors opened the scoring in the sixth minute through Harry Potter, although Sid Harvey missed the conversion attempt.<\/p>\n
Forward Ioane Moananu crossed in the 13th minute before Max Jorgensen added another try in the 20th minute, with Harvey converting both to give the Waratahs a commanding 19-0 lead.<\/p>\n
The Drua answered through Mesake Doge, whose powerful try lifted the atmosphere at the HFC Bank Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kemu Valetini added the conversion as the hosts narrowed the score to 19-7.<\/p>\n
However, the Waratahs continued to apply pressure, with Harvey scoring a try before Teddy Wilson crossed in the 28th minute.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both conversion attempts were unsuccessful, but the visitors still extended their advantage to 29-7.<\/p>\n
The home side\u2019s challenges increased in the 34th minute when Isikeli Rabitu was shown a yellow card for a dangerous tackle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Waratahs capitalised shortly before half-time with another converted try to carry a dominant 36-7 lead into the break.<\/p>\n
The Drua returned after half-time with renewed energy and intensity.<\/p>\n
Elia Canakaivata crossed in the 46th minute and Valetini converted successfully before Kitione Salawa added another try six minutes later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A second successful conversion reduced the margin and reignited hopes of a comeback.<\/p>\n
The Waratahs responded through Apolosi Ranawai, whose converted try pushed the visitors further ahead at 50-21.<\/p>\n
In the 67th minute, the Drua suffered another setback when Canakaivata was forced from the field with an injury.<\/p>\n
Despite the deficit, the Drua continued to attack with confidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tuidraki Samusamuvodre scored a late converted try before captain Temo Mayanavanua crossed after the full-time siren.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The successful conversion reduced the final margin to 50-38.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua mounted a spirited second-half comeback but were ultimately defeated 50-35 by the NSW…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[221184,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-432090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-feature-fijian-drua-photo-super-rugby","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}