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Fijian Drua marked their debut appearance in Super Rugby Pacific with a spine-tingling war dance, the ‘Na Bole’, equal parts fearsome passion and perfectly orchestrated cohesion.
When the game kicked off though, half of that recipe disappeared in face of a well-drilled NSW Waratahs, who gave new coach Darren Coleman a first-up 40-10 win for the team that failed to get one of any kind last year and had waited 488 days.
The Waratahs will face tougher tasks of course, and the Drua will need to improve quickly on this reckless and undisciplined display.
Passion will never be an issue for the Pacific Island visitors, but their execution fell far short of the level. They showed glimpses of threat, especially in a sustained 15 minute period late in the first half, only for silly errors to cruel their chances.
Their passion never dropped and they engaged in several bitter spats with their hosts, ending the match strongly enough when it was already put to bed by the Tahs early second half blitz.
In contrast, the Waratahs brought their impressive trial form into the competition proper and they had some excellent performances all around the park.
Coleman, and defence coach Jason Gilmore, have spent plenty of time in drilling their defence and it showed against a team who failed to bring the flair Fijian rugby is famous for.
And the Tahs pack produced the opening two tries, dominating in what former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika called a “pragmatic” first half performance.
Having overwhelmed the Fijians up front the Tahs were more expansive in the second period.
Ben Donaldson, starting at No.10 for the Tahs, laid down a marker in his 12th game, another young gun emerging behind veteran Wallabies No.10s Quade Cooper and James O’Connor, while centres Izaia Perese and Lalakai Foketi were also impressive.
Lachie Swinton and Jed Holloway were immense, especially early on and the pack hunted together. Prop Angus Bell, who scored a first half try, was named player of the match.
Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
“To start there were a bit of nerves, especially coming off last year,” said Bell. We knew we’d put in all the work and as a young squad we had a lot of development over the pre-season.
“We’re happy but there’s a lot of stuff we can improve on and it wasn’t a full 80 minute performance.”
Former Wallaby Justin Harrison, speaking on Stan Sport, heralded the “evolution of this Waratahs’ team, problem solving on the run.
“That is a team that’s well drilled and can trust each other to problem solve when they get try scoring opportunities.
“That’s a forward pack that’s trained hard and worked hard. Every single player knows what they’re doing, to create that sort of harmony and physicality requires a lot of attention to detail.”
Cheika lamented the Fijian approach, suggesting nerves might have gotten to Mick Byrne’s team.
“We want to see this team come out confident but also know their roles,” Cheika said on Stan Sport.
“Ill discipline, lost carries, lineouts not straight, they’ve got to get rid of those errors and that’s about Super Rugby conditioning, physicality, mental aptitude to concentrate on your role.
“They were in the game for a while bit made key errors. These guys must be so nervous getting into the groove but it’s what the coaching team will want to see, that emotion and passion coupled with that hard core excellence in executing their skills.
The Drua will be a popular addition to the competition and were well supported by their community at Parramatta.
Of more concern was the relatively empty stands, with Tahs supporters not showing a great desire to travel out west.
Coleman says his ambition for the season is to win back the hearts of Tahs supporters with gusty performances they can be proud of. This was a compelling start to that mission.
“Counting the days can always tell a story,” said Cheika. “Now you have to count the days since the last loss and it’s a long time too. Because what’s really happening is what’s coming next. Yes, good start bit I’m sure coach Coleman will be really clear on the context of the victory and what he needs to take the team forward to the next step.”
After the shambles of 2021 Coleman appears to have unified the side quickly.
“With DC it’s complete passion,” said Bell. “Before the match he talked about how he’s wanted this job for 20 years and how he’s been building his career as a coach to get to this point.
“He’s a great people motivator as well as a coach and really got the boys bound together and we’ve all brought into the team culture and we really lucky to have someone like DC push us forward.
“We have a lot of young boys, and the core leadership is solid. Last year was one of the worst years we’ve all had individually but I couldn’t fault anyone. If anything it made us tighter.
“From that we grow and trust and work together and stay tough for moments like these where we have to stay tough, like on the bell when they were down in our 22 for ten minutes, and can pull through and get a positive result.”