Latest development: SWIRE Shipping Fijian Drua prop Peni Ravai has urged his side to urgently fix persistent lineout problems after the hosts scraped home 24-14 over the Highlanders in Suva on Saturday. While the victory maintained the Drua’s competitive record at home, Ravai admitted the team were fortunate to win and paid for inconsistency in the set pieces by missing out on a bonus point.
The Drua trailed for much of the first half as the New Zealand visitors controlled momentum and probed Fiji’s defensive shape, but the home side rallied after the break to overturn the deficit and secure a ten-point win. Ravai praised the Highlanders’ early performance but was blunt in assessing his own team’s shortcomings. “I thought the Highlanders did really well in the first half, luckily we bounced back in the second half but too bad we couldn’t get a bonus point but we were lucky to get a win,” he said.
Set-piece execution — particularly at the lineout — again proved a headache for the Drua, with missed lifts and losing throws halting several promising attacking sequences. Ravai flagged the lineout as the primary area of work before the Drua’s next Super Rugby Pacific outing against the Waratahs. “We need to fix our lineout before the Waratahs game, that will be our main work on,” he said, adding that the scrum showed encouraging stability despite broader inconsistencies.
The win keeps momentum at HFC Bank Stadium and underlines the Drua’s resilience in tight encounters, but the coach and players will be mindful that errors in the set pieces could be punished by stronger opponents as the season progresses. Missing the bonus point — awarded for scoring four or more tries — means the Drua left potential ladder points on the field that could be valuable in the closely contested Pacific competition.
Ravai’s assessment provides a clear outline for the training focus this week: tighten the lineout mechanics, reinforce communication between jumpers and lifters, and convert second-half improvements into a full 80-minute performance. The Drua’s ability to recover in the second half will be welcome, but the emphasis from a senior forward signals internal urgency ahead of the trip to face the Waratahs, who traditionally test set-piece discipline and defensive structure.
Saturday’s result will be seen as a workmanlike triumph at home, but Ravai’s comments frame it as a warning. With a tough run of fixtures looming, the Drua must shore up their lineout to avoid narrow escapes becoming costly defeats as Super Rugby Pacific enters its middle phase.