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Watch: Fijian Drua snatch it late against Moana Pasifika
By Finn Morton
Fijian Drua outside back Taniela Rakuro will never forget his Super Rugby Pacific debut against Moana Pasifika at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium.
Rakuro was part of the Drua Academy earlier this week, before being named in the No. 23 jersey ahead of their season opener in New Zealand.
But the wingers debut couldn’t have gone any better.
In the dying stages of the game, Rakuro found himself in space – but dramatically slipped over mere metres from the try-line.
But it worked in his favour, as the covering defender slipped over. After getting to his feet, the debutant jotted the ball down for a memorable score with about three minutes to play - which can be seen above.
While there was still time left on the clock – about 90 seconds after the unsuccessful conversion – the Drua held on for a famous win.
“We’ve always said to our boys in their second year, we just want them to trust themselves. I think they’re just waiting for the game to start, then they get into it,” head coach Mick Byrne told Sky Sport after the match.
“They’ll learn, they’ll learn from that.
“Super Rugby has been Super Rugby for as long as I can think of and now it’s Super Rugby Pacific, and we saw today why it’s called Super Rugby Pacific.”
The contest was a sublime advertisement for Pacific Island rugby, and highlighted what the competition has been lacking in recent years.
Following the pre-match challenges from both teams, Moana raced out to an early lead.
Prop Levi Aumua scored after just two minutes, and his front-row teammate Chris Apoua crossed for one of his own shortly after.
But Drua fought their way back, and even managed to level the scores at 19-all late in the half, before Danny Toala regained the lead for Moana Pasifika just before the break.
The seesawing contest continued into the second half – it always appeared destined to come down to the wire.
Ultimately the match was decided by some brilliance towards the end, with the debutant reaping the rewards.
The match follows an outstanding opening night of Super Rugby Pacific, which saw the Chiefs and Brumbies record important wins to start their campaigns.
Travelling down south, the Chiefs not only conquered the champion Crusaders, but utterly outclassed them on their home deck.
Playing at Christchurch’s Orangetheory Stadium, the Chiefs scored 24 unanswered points in the second-half to win 31-10.
On the other side of the Tasman, the Brumbies showed their class throughout a thrilling contest against rivals the NSW Waratahs in Sydney.
Scrumhalf Ryan Lonergan was among the standouts for the victors, having scored 16 of his sides points.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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