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Fijian Drua coach trolls Waratahs counterpart after golden point win
By Ned Lester
Fijian Drua coach Mick Byrne has been keeping receipts and had a tongue-in-cheek response after his side beat the Waratahs in Lautoka in round five.
The win was the Drua's second of the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific campaign and condemned the Waratahs to 10th place on the competition table, with just one win over the Crusaders to show for the Sydneysiders' efforts so far this season.
It was a dramatic encounter with the scores tied at full time resulting in a golden point passage of play. Waratahs first five-eighth Tane Edmed missed a drop goal for the win before super sub Kemu Valetini nailed an attempt of his own to steal the win, inspiring raucous applause from the Fijian faithful.
Following the win, Byrne fronted media sporting a Chicago Bulls cap, a curious choice but one that was sparked by Waratahs coach Darren Coleman two years prior.
Following the Waratahs' 40-10 win over the Drua to open the 2022 season - the Drua's first season in Super Rugby - Coleman attempted to temper expectations with what could be considered a not-so-delicately put dig at the Fijian team.
Coleman said "It wasn't like we beat the Chicago Bulls", a line that must have stuck with Byrne and the Drua.
Fast forward to Lautoka 2024 and Byrne and the Drua have grown to be a highly competitive outfit, especially when running out on home soil.
"We may not have played like the Chicago Bulls, and we may not have won like the Chicago Bulls, but we won," Byrne told media following the win.
The moment was shared on the Drua's social media and praised by pundits over the weekend.
"He's not just wearing his heart on his sleeve, he's holding a grudge! And you use that," Former All Black Jeff Wilson reacted on The Breakdown.
"When you're a coach you'll find whatever works to get a little extra out of your team. The players who were involved would have remembered that. But that's gold. That's outstanding.
"(The result) wasn't convincing in the end, he would've liked it to have been easier. I wonder if the hat was sitting there and he was going ‘Oh dear, this might not get used today'."
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I’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
Go to commentsThose are pretty good draws for the two top Aussie teams. I certainly wouldn't want my Chiefs to have a quarter final in Brisbane. None of the top teams will want the Crusaders.
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