Editorial:

Let’s hope our Fiji Airways Fijian Drua light up our weekend today.

Despite high expectations, our senior national teams failed to spark on the world front.

And it has been a tough week as fans tried to come to terms and drown their sorrows after we exited the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

Making matters worse, the Fiji Airways Fijiana failed to win a game in the first tournament of the Women Sevens Series in Glendale, United States of America.

Yesterday our national rugby league team comprised NRL stars lost to Samoa, Tonga and Cook Islands in the three pool games at the World Cup 9s at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney.

Today the Fijian Drua will play Canberra Vikings in the semifinal of the Australian National Rugby Championship and we hope they will light up our day.

Viking Park is not our favourite hunting ground since we first competed in the NRC in 2017.

In fact, we have never won there and the onus will be on the Senirusi Seruvakula-coached side to turn the table and defy the odds.

We lost 5-66 in 2017 and 28-41 in September while our wins (40-36, 35-28) were recorded at Churchill Park, Lautoka in 2018.A place in the 2019 NRC grand final next week is the prize after what’s expected to be a toe-to-toe showdown.

The Drua are our future Flying Fijians and some of the players will make up the John McKee-coached side for the clash against the Barbarians in Twickenham next month.

They have plenty of try-scoring ability throughout and that’s why they reached the semi-final stages of the NRC for the third year in a row.

While the Flying Fijians seem to fade out in the last quarter of the game as was the case against Australia and Wales in Japan, the Drua are exactly doing the opposite leaving the best for last in the last few games which has been well studied by Vikings coach Nick Scrivener.

He said: “If you look at Fiji, they average 19-20 points in the second half every game they play, so that’s part of the thinking as well in terms of (our) selection about who you want on the field against a Fiji team that probably uses the ball more in the second half when defences are tired.”

But Seruvakula has full confidence in his young guns.“We are taking on one of the youngest teams in the competition and will carry the underdog tag against a tough opponent in the Vikings,” he said.

Today’s Sunday, let’s not forget our Drua.

Feedback:  oseab@fijisun.com.fj