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Watch: Fijian Drua stars combine for breathtaking 100-metre try against Chiefs
By Sam Smith
The Fijian Drua may have fallen short against the Chiefs by one point in Lautoka, but they still managed to produce one of the tries of the season on Saturday.
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A sold-out Churchill Park crowd were treated to a spectacle as Lautoka staged its first-ever Super Rugby match, with the Drua scoring three late tries to bring them within a whisker of victory.
While they couldn’t quite get across the line in their 35-34 defeat, the Drua provided their home fans with no shortage of entertainment throughout the course of the match.
Arguably the highlight of the contest, though, came as the game ticked into the final 10 minutes when standout wing Vinaya Habosi and midfielder Kalaveti Ravouvou combined to score a superb length-of-the-field try.
Backtracking to retrieve the ball from a Chiefs kick, Habosi scooped the ball up and shrugged off the defensive efforts of Emoni Narawa on his own tryline to instigate the long-range counter-attack.
The electric speedster then skipped through tackle attempts from Rameka Poihipi, Cortez Ratima and Ollie Norris inside his own 22 to march his way up to the 10-metre mark, where he was eventually taken down by Josh Ioane.
However, Habosi flung an offload away to the supporting Ravouvou, who cut in-field to deceive Bryn Gatland before bursting through a gap between Naitoa Ah Kuoi and Jonah Lowe.
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Neither one of Ah Kuoi or Lower were able to execute a tackle on Ravouvou, who was able to canter on home from 40 metres out with nobody else in front of him, much to the delight of the raucous crowd.
OH MY 🤯🤯🤯#DRUvCHI | #SuperRugbyPacific pic.twitter.com/wq5nc5aqD3
— Super Rugby Pacific (@SuperRugby) May 28, 2022
That try preceded two further tries to Apisalome Vota and Timoci Sauvoli, which brought the Drua to within touching distance of the Chiefs on the scoreboard, but the buffer proved to be a bridge too far to gap.
As such, the Drua’s inaugural season in Super Rugby Pacific has come to a close, while the Chiefs will host either the Hurricanes or Waratahs at FMG Stadium Waikato in Hamilton in next week’s quarter-finals.
