The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua’s humiliating loss to Western Force is what is worrying Crusaders head coach Rob Penney.
Penney says that the Drua will be a difficult challenge in their own right, especially as they didn’t perform very well against the Force last time out.
“Well, I don’t think we’ve ever won in Fiji, but I know the (Drua) coaching staff got into them last week,” he told Rugby Pass.
“I don’t think they played very well against the Force, and they’ve had the bye now.
“They’ve probably been waiting for an opportunity to do well in front of their fans and it will be very challenging, as we know.
“Heading into those games down the track, we just got to take one game at a time and prepare well at each game.”
The Crusaders, who rested most of their top Moana Pasifika, suffered a 45-29 beating.
When asked by the media whether Penney thought the defeat was a wake-up call, he disagreed, calling it instead a poor performance.
“It was just poor, we didn’t have the emotional energy that they did and you don’t have to be far off to get punished in this competition.
“We felt that we’d really set the group up as a coaching team, we felt we’d set it up along with the leaders to make sure we respect them, and that the performance was coming, be ready for it.”
Crusaders are expected to field their star players like Havili, Sevu Reece, Will Jordan, Chay Fihaki and Taha Kamara against the Drua. Reece who has scored 64 Super Rugby tries is one short of equaling TJ Pereana who is currently holds the top try scorer with 65.
The match kicks-off on Saturday at 3.35pm at Suva’s HFC Bank Stadium.
Feedback: leonec@fijisun.com.fj
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