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Win over Drua leaves Force daring to dream of making the knockouts

(Photo by James Worsfold/Getty Images)

Western Force are daring to dream of Super Rugby Pacific finals, keeping their hopes alive with a bonus point 34-14 win over Fijian Drua at HBF Park. The victory maintained the Force’s unbeaten home record of four wins from four, and Friday’s bonus point was crucial as they jumped the Drua and moved into the top eight.

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The Force scrum was bolstered by the return from injury of Wallabies Tom Robertson and Folau Fainga’a, with the latter grabbing two tries. Max Burey, in just his second Super game, straightened the Force attack well and centre Sam Spink was bruising in midfield.

The Force’s carries through the middle were effective and they concentrated most of their wide attack on the left with right winger Zach Kibirige struggling. Coach Simon Cron went into the game with just two backs on the bench for the first time this season and would have been reluctant to make an early switch.

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His problem deepened when he lost left winger Manasa Mataele after 54 minutes with an eye injury. The Force took an early lead when the ball was moved quickly to Mataele who went over in the corner. They went further ahead when hooker Fainga’a ran a good line to crash over for his third try of the season, converted by Burey.

After a slow start, the Drua clawed back, piling pressure on the Force defence as Eroni Sau found a hole to stroll through. His try was converted by Frank Lomani. The momentum swung further in the Drua’s favour and they pummeled the Force line, edging ahead on the half-hour with a converted try by Te Ahiwaru Cirikidaveta.

Burey restored the home side’s lead with a penalty after the siren. The Drua were pointless after the break as the Force got off to a dream second-half start, second-rower Jeremy Williams driving over from the back of a maul.

Fainga’a added his second from a rolling maul, Burey converted both, and homegrown flanker Carlo Tizzano added the fifth with his first Super try for the Force.

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1 Comment
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isaac 645 days ago

What a match by the Force..composed for most parts...what frustrated me though was four different interpretations of the same infringement at ruck by the ref.....it was the scrum...3 penalties at first to the drua....then he let the #9 use ball twice...then he blew three resets of the scrum and finally awarded two penalties to the force for the same play....no wonder rugby is on it's way down

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JW 1 hour ago
France player ratings vs England | 2025 Six Nations

Sorry my delivery on that joke was a bit bland. But to reply to the couple of good points you make, to me it just seemed like they had no plan with why Gatland was staying on. I mean the plan seemed to be “just get us a win against Italy and we can continue on as we are”, which is just terrible if that’s what Gatland was trying to achieve for Wales imo.


Did it just happen to be Italy that he saw his team weren’t able to achieve his vision of success? I mean Italy are a very good side so its by no means a lost cause to not look like world beaters. Sure his focus should have been on more transient factors like growth and style for a full rebuild, not trying to avoid the wooden spoon.


Which brings me to you main point, that would be exactly what the benefit of dropping down a tier would be. A chance to really implement something, get good at it, then take it up a level again once you’re ready. Even for Italy it must have been an incredibly brutal environment to have been trying to develop as a side.


Not saying of course that the other EU teams would be any better, but it might be better for everyone if say ‘years of tough losses’ are shared between countries, rather than see Wales go through this journey two, three, possible four years in a row. Of course the main reason they don’t want to miss just one 6N season is because it would probably tank the game in their country missing out on all that revenue. I have always said they should look at widening the revenue share, there are plenty of competitions that have systems to keep bottom teams competitive, and the 6N would only make more money if it was a tierd competition with prom/rel.

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