Swire Shipping Fijian Drua coach Mick Byrne says he is proud of how his players stood up to the test in the 39-36 win over the Waratahs in Lautoka today.

Byrne says the Drua players let themselves down at crucial stages in the match but showed resilience and determination to get the win in front of the home crowd at Churchill Park.

“Full credit to the Waratahs, they came back and I thought their bench was really good, and asked questions of us. We got ourselves in a bit of trouble and let in a few points there but when we needed to step up in golden point time and we were down in front of our line and we kept getting off our line and coming forward, that’s now 90 minutes of football our boys are playing. So our men now know they’ve got it in the tank and they just have to go hard.”

Centre Iosefo Masi scored a hat-trick of tries with the Drua’s other tries coming from Frank Lomani and Tevita Ikanivere while fly half Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula added 11 points from the kicking tee with Kemu Valetini slotting over the winning drop goal in golden point.

The Drua will host the Western Force in another double header next weekend in Churchill Park.