The Canterbury Crusaders showed their power at Suva’s HFC Stadium yesterday despite a huge crowd turning up to cheer on local heroes, the Fijian Drua. The Crusaders were not intimidated by the Drua’s “Na i Bole” and the cheers of the Suva crowd, scoring three unanswered tries, with one successful conversion in the first half of the game. Noah Hotham, Antonio Shalfoon and Chay Fihaki were the try makers for the visitors. The Fijian Drua looked shell-shocked, with too many dropped balls in the contact areas costing them dearly. The Crusaders also used the ‘kick chase’ tactic – an effective way of gaining territory – to apply more pressure on the Drua. Vuate Karawalevu had a busy afternoon trying to catch all the kicks that came his way at fullback, with Crusaders half-back Hotham launching a few difficult high balls from the box of the ruck to test Karawalevu in the aerial battle. Captain Frank Lomani was subbed off in the 25th minute after he popped his shoulder. How serious that injury is, remains to be seen. While there were glimpses of some Fijian flair, the passes were not sticking to hand. Center pairing Inia Tabuavou and Iosefo Masi made a few half-breaks but the team did not fully capitalise on the opportunities. Knock-ons were the biggest issue for the Drua. At half time the Crusaders were ahead 17-0 and they continued their dominance in the second half, scoring two more converted tries from blind wing Macca Springer and replacement hooker Ioane Moananu. The Fijian Drua finally broke through in the 65th minute of the game when Iosefo Masi sneaked a grubber kick behind the Crusaders defense line. Replacement utility back Isikeli Rabitu chased hard, regathered the ball and raced away to score right underneath the uprights. The Drua scored another try in the 68th minute, this time a solo effort by replacement loose forward Etonia Waqa from deep within their own half. Waqa sliced through the Crusaders tacklers, broke clear and then sold a beautiful dummy pass before he outran Macca Springer and dived over the tryline. The Fijian Drua mounted more pressure in search of more tries in the last 10 minutes, but time was not on their side. The Crusaders held their ground as the clock wound down. Final score Crusaders 31 – 14 Drua. Fijian Drua Coach Glen Jackson congratulated their opponents after the game. “They knew how to slow the game down and managed the game very well. They’ve got a lot of All Blacks in the game. Our boys tried really hard. We probably didn’t hang on to the ball like we wanted to.” Captain Tevita Ikanivere added: “We were mentally prepared for this game. We trained hard…We were alright. We just didn’t keep the ball as much as we wanted to. We just dropped too many balls and a quality team like the Crusaders just capitalised on it. We were out there. We wanted to win. The efforts were there but we just didn’t keep the ball.” This tough loss will hurt the Fijian Drua who are currently at the bottom of the table in 11th place. They have the next eight rounds to vie for a place in the top 6 finals round of the Super Rugby 2025 season.