OVALAU created the biggest upset of round seven of the Digicel Cup competition when they beat Lautoka 16-15 yesterday.
Playing in front of a home crowd at Nasau Park in Levuka, the hosts rallied back from being down 9-10 to shock the Maroons.
Coach Luke Vulo applauded the courageous efforts of his players and said his team was slowly finding its footing in the competition.
"I am really happy with how the boys played today against Lautoka," Vula said.
"They really stood up to the challenge despite the wet weather and muddy ground conditions," he said.
"Lautoka is a good team and they were favourites for this match but upsetting them at home is a big achievement for us."
He said only silly mistakes from his players allowed Lautoka to score three tries against them, otherwise it was a much improved performance compared to their last outing.
"We really learnt a lot from last week's loss, the boys were more disciplined and we didn't give away unnecessary penalties.
"But the only mistakes from us were a lot of lost possession from knock-on and handling errors but that could have been a result of the wet and muddy ground conditions."
Vulo said his side will face Tavua next and this week they would concentrate on fixing areas they felt were weak in the game against Lautoka.
"I will ask the boys to maintain their fitness because Tavua will be no pushover.
"Also we will need to tighten up our defence and work more on getting the basics right.
"All of this plus more, we will work on this week because the competition is getting tougher and we need to lift our performance," he said.
Points:
Ovalau - 16. Tries: Savenaca Waqalutu. Conversions: Sekonaia Naivalu Penalties: Sekonaia Naivalu (3)
Lautoka - 15. Tries: Taione Ratu, Alipate Ciba (2).