Rugby

Hurricanes claim solid win over Drua

May 8, 2022 4:07 pm

[Source: Super Rugby pacific/ Twitter]

Hurricanes thrashed the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua 67-5 running in 11 unanswered tries to one in round 12 of the Super Rugby Pacific today.

Fiji won two turnovers but failed to take advantage of the opportunities, as the Hurricanes ran in four unanswered tries in the first half.

It was Joshua Moorby who opened the scoring for the Hurricanes from a set-piece in the 14th minute combined with a series of passes cracking the Fijian Drua defence.

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Hurricanes got its second try in the 16th minute from hooker Asafo Aumua. The side kept the ball alive with a well-orchestrated passing to score out wide. The conversion was however unsuccessful.

The Hurricanes were too strong for the Drua as it delivered a touch pass, taking a big hit at halfway.

Salesi Rayasi drew the defence to find Billy Proctor who drove outside to score, the conversion was successful.

Hurricanes scored its fourth in the 32nd minute as they won a lineout inside the 22 which led the ball to the left where Joshua Moorby went into the line to score, Aidan Morgan successfully converted, creating a 26-0 point margin at half-time.

The Hurricanes struck early in the second half winning a lineout and shifting right, where Aidan Morgan provided the overlap for Wes Goosen to score at the corner.

Drua won the lineout in their own half in the 7th minute but the Hurricanes turned it over. As Gibson surged to the Drua’s 22, Rayasi found Tyler Laubscher, and offloaded to Goosen for his second try of the match.

Hurricanes landed another try two minutes later after Drua lost its lineout.

From the ruck, Hurricanes shifted left, where Morgan found Laubscher, who flicked a quick pass to his Isaia Walker- Leawere who rumbled through a gap in the defence to score.

Hurricanes won another lineout in the 17th minute and shifted left, where Moorby set Rayasi to score in the corner, Proctor scored another try just minutes after.

Finally, the Drua had something to show for their effort, winning a penalty advantage at the scrum, but clearing right, where replacement winger Onisi Ratave fended off Garden-Bachop to score.

Moorby went for a hattrick try from the scrum.

Hurricanes scored the final try of the match to seal the deal, as TeKamaka Howden burst off the back towards the try line. Cam Roigard was close, but Justin Sangster picked up and scored.

A speechless Fijian Drua captain Ratu Meli Derenalagi says there was still a lot of work needed to be done.

“There’s a lot of improvement we need to see in today’s game and I think we’ll need to go back and regroup because we need to count every game as a final because today we just showed lack of execution in our game plan.”

Hurricanes Skipper TJ Perenara says they came in prepared knowing Fiji was a strong side.

“We put ourselves in positions to score and then we turned the ball over and I thought tonight although there was a few turnovers from us we took them to 11 phases or multiple phases and that’s what we needed to do against the team that wanted to hurt us if we didn’t respect the ball.”