The Brumbies held off the surging Fijian Drua to win 43-28 in one of the games of the Super Rugby Pacific season at GIO Stadium on Friday night.
The fearless Drua didn’t die wondering and traded haymakers with the competition’s best Australian side, but couldn’t find a go-ahead try in a lengthy late stand on the Brumbies’ line.
After some hairy defensive moments, the Brumbies sealed the deal via some forward pack domination, their trademark rolling maul producing a penalty try seven minutes from time to finally break the Drua.
Winger Ben O’Donnell completed a hat-trick of tries in the dying stages to embellish the scoreline, although the 15-point margin perhaps flattered the Brumbies after a thrilling second term.
The Brumbies moved to 7-1 for the season but it was far from their most convincing display.
Coach Stephen Larkham said his side needed to go deep into their kit bag to find solutions for the powerful Drua who were looking to claim the upset of the season.
“There’s good composure in the team at the moment isn’t there? We’ve seen that throughout the season so far, we’ve been in a tight tussle for eight rounds now with every team,” Larkham said.
“Particularly when (Drua) get behind on the scoreboard, they’re gonna run it from anywhere and they were just good.
“They’re big bodies that were marching their way down the field pretty easily for periods there. We really didn’t fix that up until the second half.
“Once they’re behind the gain line they’re very dangerous … This competition for them is going to do them a world of good going into the World Cup … they’re building really good combinations.”
What looked set to be a typical, machine-like Brumbies win was turned on its head with a Drua double blow on the stroke of halftime.
Starved of possession through the first half-hour, the visitors appeared to be guests at a Brumbies party as the hosts romped to a 19-0 lead highlighted by a silky 14-minute double for O’Donnell.
But Drua’s backs opened up and found tries for Peni Matawalu and Teti Tela, helped back to their 19-14 halftime deficit via a pair of yellow cards for cynical play from Brumbies Darcy Swain and Andy Muirhead.
Each time the Brumbies stepped things up the Drua had an answer, but once the Brumbies survived a lengthy period on their own line they lent on their forward pack to steer them home.
Second rower Swain’s yellow card perhaps highlighted one flaw in the Wallaby World Cup hopeful’s game, coming off a 2022 season where he picked up three yellows and one red card for club and country with a number of decision-making errors.
Fijian Drua’s Tela put on a clinic at No.10, pulling the strings constantly with his pin-point cross-field kick for Masi’s try a clear highlight.
“We’re quite confident as a footy side when we put it together, we can beat any team on our given day,” Tela said.
“We just took a little bit of time before we decided we’ll start playing. I back my boys any day of the week to score tries.
“Brumbies are a good side … they’re quite clinical, especially if you’re giving them too many penalties.”
By Alex Mitchell in Canberra
