{"id":543502,"date":"2026-07-25T13:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T13:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/543502\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T13:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T13:39:16","slug":"waratahs-spoil-fijian-drua-party-to-claim-third-straight-super-rugby-womens-title-super-rugby-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/543502\/","title":{"rendered":"Waratahs spoil Fijian Drua party to claim third straight Super Rugby Women\u2019s title | Super Rugby Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"

NSW Waratahs have produced a scintillating performance to complete a hat-trick of Super W women\u2019s rugby titles and defy their detractors with a 34-17 win over minor premiers Fijian Drua in Ba, Fiji<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Tahs secured a record-extending seventh Super W title.<\/p>\n

NSW scored the first four tries of Saturday\u2019s final at Four R Stadium, racing to a 24-0 lead 10 minutes after half-time. The Drua took almost an hour to post their first points, but any glimmers of hope were quickly extinguished as NSW replacement back Amelia Whitaker crossed twice in the following eight minutes.<\/p>\n

The Waratahs scored six tries to three in the first Super W final played in Fiji. It was the third time the two teams had met in the final, with each team winning one encounter prior to Saturday. The result completed a terrific turnaround for NSW, who lost back-to-back matches to Queensland Reds and Western Force in their last two round-robin games, before defeating Force in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like rugby in Australia wrote us off, we lose two games and that\u2019s it for us and this is the response,\u201d Waratahs captain and flanker Emily Chancellor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be more proud of the way we played today,\u201d added Chancellor, who praised the local crowd for their energy before collecting the trophy from Fiji prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka.<\/p>\n

Faliki Pohiva runs the ball in a player of the match performance to help NSW Waratahs beat Fijian Drua in the 2026 Super Rugby Women\u2019s grand final. Photograph: Pita Simpson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The game was played at pace, with both sides looking to move the ball quickly, but NSW executed better in the first hour as the hosts made too many mistakes, including six lost lineout throws.<\/p>\n

Prolific try-scoring winger Maya Stewart charged over unchallenged in the 19th minute, after quick passes unlocked the Drua\u2019s defence. Stewart turned creator when she off-loaded to fellow Wallaroo Miller for the Tahs\u2019 second try.<\/p>\n

The home team twice turned down the option to kick for goal in the first half, but had a lineout throw stolen from the first penalty and couldn\u2019t breach the Tahs defence after tapping from the second. Up 12-0 at the break, NSW doubled their advantage after Wallaroos prop and player of the final Faliki Pohiva crashed over and centre Rose Ferguson rounded off a fine multi-pass move by dummying her way through the defence.<\/p>\n

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Flanker Nunia Daunimoala scored the Drua\u2019s first try, but Whitaker\u2019s double effectively settled the contest. Daunimoala bagged her second and No 8 Sulita Waisega also crossed, as the Drua battled until the end and showed what they could do when retaining possession.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a tough year, we\u2019ve rebuilt from ground level again,\u201d Drua\u2019s season captain Bitila Tawake said. \u201cThe goal for the club is to get [to] another grand final and we promise that we will get there again.\u201d<\/p>\n

NSW forward Emily Robinson came off the bench to play in her eighth Super W final and seventh title-winning team. The Waratahs will play in next Saturday\u2019s Super Rugby Champions final against the winner of New Zealand\u2019s Super Rugby Aupiki decider between the Blues and Matatu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NSW Waratahs have produced a scintillating performance to complete a hat-trick of Super W women\u2019s rugby titles and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-543502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543502","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=543502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}