'They're gonna cause a few New Zealand teams headaches'

Expectations for the Fijian Drua may have been low heading into the Super Round against New Zealand’s number one team on the ladder, but Blues head coach Leon Macdonald insists his side were never planning for an easy game.

The Drua completed a win over the Rebels and nearly had a dramatic upset over the Reds over the first half of Super Rugby Pacific against the Australian teams.

After a physical encounter where the Blues weren’t able to play their natural game, Leon Macdonald said that the other Kiwi teams will have problems to deal with.

Aotearoa Rugby Pod | Episode 9

Aotearoa Rugby Pod | Episode 9

“No, not at all. They only lost by a few points to the Reds.

“You look at all their games and they’ve been right in the middle of it all year and I think we were expecting this sort of game. We didn’t want it to get loose and scrappy like it did but we expected it.

“They’re gonna cause a few New Zealand teams headaches.”

The natural attacking instinct of the Fijians make the Drua such a difficult team to defend as the Blues found out when numerous short grubber kicks caught them off guard.

Macdonald said they are ‘not like any other team’ and their attacking style forced the Blues out of their normal game. He noted their set piece scrum had also improved which would hold them in good stead moving forward.

“They’ve been fun to prepare against because they’re so different to every other team,” he said.

“They’re not like any other team, they’re really unique. I think that’s what [unclear] their style’s different. The way they attack the game is refreshing and we’ll sit here frustrated because we were unable to play the game we wanted to because they didn’t allow us.

“They’re fantastic athletes, some real firepower in terms of their ability to create something out of nothing.

“And I thought their scrum, which has been under the pump a little bit this season, really held strong and they showed a lot of fire with the maul which has been a little bit under the pump this year.

“So they’re getting better in the core parts of the game which is gonna make them even more dangerous.”

After beating the Crusaders in Christchurch last week and the Chiefs in Hamilton the week before, Macdonald said the team had to ‘reset’ as they don’t have a bye week this year.

The side had a few days off before their clash against the Drua but will ramp up the training now they are on the road.

“We did a bit of a reset at the end of the Crusaders game because we don’t have a bye this year and we knew we had to take a couple of deep breaths and mentally, physically have a bit of break,” he said.

“So we had a few days off and got ready to go again. I think just getting on the road, we’ll get a little more work in. We had a few lighter weeks, the Chiefsand Crusaders weeks, and now we can get on the road and get some good training in.”