They were made to play until the last whistle, but the ACT Brumbies held on to post an important 28-20 win over the Fijian Drua in Canberra on Saturday night.
After opening up a 21-3 lead at half-time off the back of two tries to Test centre Len Ikitau, Mick Byrne’s Drua scored two converted tries to close the margin to 21-17 midway through the second half to have the Brumbies on the ropes.
But a superb cameo off the bench from loose-forward Luke Reimer, who won two crucial on-ball penalties and then scored a try, proved to be match-defining.
“It got a bit cold on the bench watching,” Reimer later quipped. “I just came on and did my job.”
That he did and without his impact, the Brumbies may well have left the wintry, wet evening without the crucial four points.
At the heart of the Brumbies’ troubles were their discipline issues.
Len Ikitau scored a first-half double for the Brumbies in their narrow win over the Fiji Drua at GIO Stadium on May 04, 2024. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
The home side was on the end of a 17-9 penalty count, with the Drua dominating the scrum and physical battles.
“It was a tough game,” Test front-rower Allan Alaalatoa said.
“That was expected. Fiji are a great outfit.
“They put us under immense pressure all game, especially through their physicality and then their set-piece, so we’ve got a lot to look at moving forward.”
Ikitau put it more bluntly: “They put us under a lot of pressure with their ball-runners and we’ve got to fix that, that was terrible and we’ll go again next week.”
Alaalatoa, who was playing his second match following his Achilles injury last July, said their challenges came off the back of losing the physicality battle.
“They were winning the collisions a lot, which meant that they put us on the back foot,” he said.
“Our boys were probably trying too hard, a few penalties coming in from the side, things that we can control, but I think that just all comes off the back of losing the collisions.”
Drua skipper Meli Derenalagi was one of his side’s best but recognised the Brumbies were ripe for the picking midway through the second half.
“It was a very frustrating match for us,” the back-rower said.
“We knew the Brumbies would be playing their hearts out in front of their home fans, but we brought that physicality and intensity. We will learn from this game and work on it for the next three games.”
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