Drua Players Are Resilient: Byrne
The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua have had their share of challenges along the way in their debut season.
Being away from home for their Super Rugby for almost six months before playing the Highlanders on April 30, head coach Mick Byrne said it has been tough.
The Drua side will return to their homes after they play against the Chiefs at 3pm this Saturday at Churchill Park in Lautoka.
Plans are in place for them to be based in Fiji from next season.
“Just some personal challenge; people living away from home is not easy,” Byrne said.
“Our players were extremely resilient. It was inspiring watching them get up and work hard in their new environment that was probably a big challenge.”
Another difficulty was when they moved out of their Lake Ainsworth Sport and Recreation Centre in Lennox Head, New South Wales due to the flooding in April.
“The other challenge was later in the season when we had to move around a little bit.
“I suppose one of the other big challenge is never really had a home game, each week we are on a flight and travelling to a hotel so each week we had to travel which was new to our players.
“That was a another challenge for us, to pack up and get into a plane or bus trip and sleep in other beds and things like that which other teams had to do every second week, we had to do it every week,” Byrne added.
“Our boys got on with it, showed great resilience and got through the process.”
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