Swire Shipping Fijian Drua Head Coach Mick Byrne says the Highlanders showed them how Super Rugby should be played.

This follows the team’s 27-24 loss to the Kiwis yesterday in front of a fan-packed home crowd at the ANZ Stadium in Suva.

Byrne says the first 15 minutes of the second half was costly for them, and the well-structured visitors took full advantage of this.

“Full credit to the Highlanders as they showed how Super Rugby should be played. 15 players came and stuck to their task and I think we thought we might have our home crowd get us home and we just gave a very good team a sniff of the victory and that’s all they needed.”  

Skipper Meli Derenalagi says the team didn’t play the full 80 minutes expected of them, especially as they led 24-17 at halftime.

“We were a bit selfish, a lot of individualism which let us down. We have a lot of learning to do even though we were ahead, we can’t let our guard down in the second half because this is Super Rugby.”

The win was a special one for Highlanders mentor Tony Brown, who celebrated his 100th game as a coach.

“I’m very proud to be involved in this game, actually. Very proud of how the Drua played and how our guys hung in there and ended up getting the win.”

Frank Lomani, Vinaya Habosi and Kalaveti Ravouvou crossed over for the Drua while the Highlanders scored through Sam Gilbert, Marino Mikaele-Tu’u and Rhys Marshall.

Drua now prepares to face Hurricanes while the Highlanders meet the Reds.