Force goes for the kill against Drua

The warning is out there for the Fijian Drua to lift their game or face another heavy loss against Western Force at the HBF Park in Perth, Australia, this Saturday night.

This is because the Force is within touching distance of their first Super Rugby Pacific finals campaign after their 19-14 win over the visitors Queensland Reds.

The Force is now six points out of the top six, still in a critical, high-stakes situation, and captain Jeremy Williams is under no illusion what lies ahead with home games against the Drua and the NSW Waratahs in the final two rounds.

“We’ve got to take it one game at a time,” Williams said.

“We put ourselves in this position where it’s do-or-die. One game could be the last. We’ve got to walk towards that.

“We’ve just got to walk towards it and do everything in our power to make the odds in our favour. Everyone’s pumped.”

And while it was ‘awesome’ to get a win-double over the Reds this season, he said: “It’s really nice to beat them twice but it doesn’t (mean anything) if we don’t win the next game (against the Drua)

“We’ve got to move onto the next job and get on with it.”

Force head coach Simon Cron was pleased with the player’s effort to hold out in the dying minutes with the Reds desperately searching to snatch a win.

But he said there was still room for improvement and added: “Feet on the ground is the minimum requirement for us.

“The boys definitely had a lot of heart and you can see their fight... good at holding possession and controlling the position on the field.

“There were a number of things that were far from perfect and we’ll continue to work on.

“But again, the fight the boys showed and the composure shown at the end was really important.”

The Force suffered a 22-24 loss to the Drua is their earlier clash in Lautoka, this season.

Cron said they needed work on their line break speed and support and ball security on the ground in what he described as “crunch and punch”.

“There’s a few other things we’ll keep working on, there’s a lot of positives we can take, but then we have to layer win-on-win, layer good-on-good,” he said.

Cron praised a number of players for their performance but said: “I could name the whole team with positives but at the end we’ve just got to layer up and get better.”

According to rugby.com.au, the Force were playing for their season in the first-ever zero2hero Charity Game having come together with the WA-based youth mental health charity in a three-year partnership.

In an often-bruising encounter, the first period ended with just one try apiece from flanker Carlo Tizzano, in his 50th Force appearance, who emerged from the bottom of a rolling maul with the ball and Reds backrower Joe Brial.

After the break Force fullback Mac Grealy touched down a loose ball and Tizzano grabbed a second from the wing.

Reds winger Tim Ryan grabbed his side’s other five pointer with Force fly-half Max Burey and Reds No.9 Louis Werchon slotting two conversions apiece.

The Force and Drua showdown kicks-off at 9.35pm.