THE Fiji Airways Drua booked its home semi-final spot after defeating the Western Force by 33-28 in the last round of the National Rugby Championship yesterday at UWA Sports Park in Perth, Western Australia.
Western Force opened proceedings with two tries in the first 10 minutes through inside centre Rodney Iona and inside centre Rod Davies which were both successfully converted by halfback Ian Prior. Levani Kurumudu broke the Force defence to put the Drua on the scoreboard just before the breather. The Drua found its form after the break with blindside wing Aporosa Tabulawaki crossing the line.
Returning from injury into the starting line-up fullback Enele Malele also crossed over and converted his own try as the Drua slowly dominated the contest between the top two placed teams in the NRC competition.
Western Force regrouped and phased the ball through for Davies to get his second in the 60th minute who also added the extras through the uprights.
But it was all too little too late as the Drua machine rolled on once again with skipper Mosese Voka and veteran Apisalome Waqatabu adding their names to the score sheet. Western Force’s pivot Andrew Deegan got a consolation try on the 80th minute to end the night’s proceedings.
The Fiji Drua remains on top of the table for the National Rugby Championship and will now prepare for the knockout stage of the competition.
In the semi-final at home the Drua will host the fourth-placed finisher, which is highly likely to be the winner of the Brisbane City vs Canberra Vikings clash today.
In the other semi-final will be between Queensland Country and the winner of today’s game between Canberra and Brisbane City.
Queensland Country is the defending NRC champion.
