Super Rugby Pacific: Drua excuses and lessons

RNZ News

12-05-2025

Blues Caleb Clarke scores a try during the Super Rugby Pacific Quarter Final - Blues v Fijian Drua at Eden Park.
Photo:
Photosport
Opinion
- Excuses, one after another, have come out of the Fijian Drua camp in the last three weeks.
Head coach Glen Jackson has used almost all the excuses in the book to justify why the team has not performed as expected in the 2025 edition of the Super Rugby Pacific competition.
Friday night's
34-5 drubbing
at the hands of the defending champions, the Blues, in Suva buried the team's hopes of any comeback and a fight to get into the top six.
That result means the end of the road for the side, which had shown so much promise in the last two seasons by reaching the quartersfinals.
And as the results got analysed, dissected and pondered upon by Fijian fans and critics, there was one common statement: the side has failed the fans badly.
Here are some key takeaways from the game:
It was too plain to see: the Drua were just not up to the standard needed to beat the Blues.
They struggled throughout the game. Luckily, they scored a try to break the egg.
Fans showed their disappointment, with only half of the HFC Bank National Stadium's seats filled.
A far cry from last year when there were hardly seats to get to.
The Blues were just too experienced, too clinical, too strong, and their experience paid off.
It is something the Drua will have to seriously look at going forward.
They definitely need some more experienced hands on deck.
It is great news to see that they have secured Temo Mayanavanua from England, who will return home to join them in 2026.
Former
The Fiji Times
sports journalist Anendra Singh shared his thoughts after the clash.
He said post-match scrums almost always reveal the naked truths of a game better than what fans see unfolding on a park.
"To use an analogy, it's like digging into a succulent slice of pork but realising it would take the culinary experience to another level if there were a portion or two of crackling to go with it.
"In that vein, rookie head coach Glen Jackson had served a couple of cracklings, after the main course when the Blues had shut out the Fijian Drua 34-5 in Suva in round 13 of the Super Rugby Pacific (SRP) clash in Suva on Friday, May 09, 2025. Facing the media scrum, Jackson had revealed he believed the Drua would need a year or two, "with the right people in the building", to become a "quality team".
"Whether he intended to be so forthright or not, it's shifted the goal posts big time from why the Drua Tagane are now likely to be rooted on the last rung of the SRP ladder this season. Mainstream media are projecting his revelation as an apology and not making any excuses.
"Well, they remain excuses but just not lame ones, such as "young villagers" or playing the blame game of poor refereeing. Fans will receive this sobering admission as accountability and transparency in an SRP season where the honeymoon of an easier qualifying pathway had come to an abrupt end.
From Jackson's statement emerges two strips of pork cracklings:
1/. When did Jackson come to the realisation that Drua wasn't going to be a quality team?
2/. Who are the right people and what building is he referring to?
"Admitting that the Blues had outplayed Drua Tagane in all facets of the game will give the discerning fans a degree of closure from other such mismatches. Acknowledging that the Blues had bigger and stronger presence on the park will also exorcise some demons.
"Having been involved with the franchise since it's relatively recent inception, Jackson would have known what stocks lay in the Fijian talent pool when he had selected this season's squad. It's difficult to believe that Fiji has no big rigs, even if some of them are plying their trade overseas.
"That also means the lack of quality in the current squad will demand some pedigree players be recruited and, by default, the dead wood will be identified. Jackson did acknowledge Drua had two incentives - a Fijian player losing his life in France and Drua players' tinana (Mother's Day) - to put in a mongrel performance.
"Which takes us deeper into the right people in presumably the franchise building. If Blues are stronger, does that mean the strength and conditioning staffers aren't doing their job and/or players aren't showing commitment?
"Where do attacking coach Tim Sampson and his defence counterpart, Greg Fleming, sit in the right or wrong part of the building? Some of the shortcomings in set-piece plays were evident dating back to last season, bar scrums, not to mention a brittle defence.
"Some fans can even be excused for asking if Jackson, a rookie on a learning curve, and Evans are going to fall on their swords at the end of this season on account of the latter seeing little merit in advertising the former's position after last season. They must wonder what Evans thinks now."
Mistakes after mistakes worked against the side and they could not recover.
Once the Blues were in control, they just kept banging away.
In the end, the mistakes piled up and the scoreline kept ticking away.
One of the biggest questions being asked now is whether the Drua have lost their bearings on what they are suppoed to be doing.
There seemed to be no punch in their attacks against the Blues.
There was no real forward movement.
Just a week earlier, they had shown a lot of promise against the Reds. However, that disappeared on Friday night.
There needs to be some serious soul-searching by the management and players also. What has gone wrong?
The Drua season is over.
Their next two games are just going to be formalities.
2026 does not look any better as they are due to lose some players.
Jackson said he is focused on the future, but fans are not convinced and are slowly losing their faith in the team.
There needs to be some changes made. And fast!