‘Crucial game’: Drua face must-win clash

The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua’s round nine clash against the Western Force on Saturday would be a crucial one as they fight for a top six spot.

Drua head coach Glen Jackson said having more than a week before the clash was great for preparation.

The Drua will host the Force at Churchill Park, Lautoka; the Force are fresh off their, 42-14, win against Reds in last Saturday’s clash.

“Eight-day turnaround’s good. Obviously, you get from the Blues to this six-day turnaround’s always going to be a little bit difficult,” Jackson said.

“We’ll get home and obviously have a look at the Force. They’re in the same sort of position as we are, so it’s an important game for us.

“The boys just need to get home and have some belief that we know this is going to be a super hard game.

“It’s really a battle now of three teams and we need to win that one.”

Jackson said their 26-69 loss to the Crusaders was disappointing.

He hopes that they would improve on the costly mistakes they did at Apollo Projects Stadium on Friday night.

“We just didn’t do things that we’d wanted to,” he said regarding their heavy defeat.

“I think defensively; we didn’t come forward.

“When you lead a team as good as the Crusaders, full of All Blacks and we don’t get off the line and allow gaps. We didn’t work hard enough. I think that’s what happens. You get 69 points put against you.”

He added that despite the loss they scored four tries against the defending Super Rugby Pacific champions.

“I think we do a lot of good stuff with the ball in hand. We don’t probably continue with it all the time. It’s obviously, again, just handling errors that sort of let us down a little bit.

“It was a bit loose, probably from us and from probably the referee a little bit as well.

“I think there’s a couple things that could have gone our way, but you got to take credit to Cody (Taylor) and the Crusaders of what they’ve done and obviously, even the special press area, you can say good luck for going to the new one.”

Saturday’s match will kick off at 4:35pm.