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Fijian Drua thump reds, end Highlanders' season

Selestino Ravutaumada. (Photo by Pita Simpson/Getty Images)

The Queensland Reds face a nervous wait after the Fijian Drua swallowed them up in a 41-17 win that secured a Super Rugby Pacific feel-good story with a finals berth in just their second season.

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The Drua dominated the second half after scores were locked 17-17 at the break, the wheels falling off for a Reds team now relying on other results to play finals.

Victory on a wet afternoon at Suva’s HFC Bank Stadium lifted Mick Byrne’s men above four teams, including the Reds, into seventh to assure them a quarter-final berth.

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And it bumped the Reds back to eighth – the Western Force now able to shunt them out of the finals picture and book their own berth with a win over the Chiefs in Perth later on Saturday.

Drua’s win was a fifth from six home games this season and came about in emphatic fashion, the hosts producing points from all corners to stun the helpless Reds.

A brilliant clearing kick and better chase from Selestino Ravutaumada set the tone, his charge down of Filipo Daugunu’s kick creating his own try.

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The Reds responded with set-piece tries to Ryan Smith and Fraser McReight but the Drua scored twice more in the half, Vilive Miramira benefiting from a cheeky Iosefo Masi chip that evaded a diving Tate McDermott.

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The Reds were never in the fight after the break, McReight sin-binned after repeat infringements and the Drua slowly turning the screws.

The Reds’ usually reliable line-out failed them, a throw on their own tryline over the back falling for hooker Tevita Ikanivere who scored the simplest of tries.

A runaway Joseva Tamani try only heightened the frenzied home crowd with seven minutes to go as the wheels fell off in what could be coach Brad Thorn’s final game in charge.

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N
NB 45 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Nice bit if revisioniusm but that's all it is JW.


For your further education, I found the following breakdown of one prominent club's finances in the Top 14 [Clermont].


For Clermont (budget of €29.5 million for 2021-2022) :

- 20% from ticket sales

- 17% from the LNR (includes TV Rights, compensation from producing french internationals and other minor stuff)

- 5% from public collectivities (so you're looking at funds from the city of Clermont, the department of Puy-De-Dôme and the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)

- 4% from merchandising and events

- 3% from miscellaneous

- 51 % from sponsorships and partnerships. They've got 550 different partners. The main ones are CGI, Groupama, Limagrain/Jacquet, Omerin, Paprec, Renault and of course Michelin (not surprising since they're actually the founders of the club).


As you can see nothing comes from the FFR at all. The LNR is a separate entitiy to FFR and their aims frequently do not accord.


It is also why the European breakaway plotted by LNR and PR back in 2013 had nothing to do with the governing bodies of either England or France - and it most certainly did not have their blessing https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/story/_/id/15331030/jean-pierre-lux-anglo-french-cup-detrimental-european-rugby


And from the horse's mouth [ex AB skipper Sean Fitapatrick] about the comp between Top 14 and Super Rugby:


"The Top 14 in France is probably the best rugby competition in the world at the moment, purely for the week-in, week-out.”


“I think the quality of players. They are bigger, they are faster, they are stronger. Which then carries on into the international game.”

Take it from someone who knows JW😅

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