Thorn praises home side

Reds head coach Brad Thorn praised the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua side for their superb performance on Saturday night, after going down 17-41 -17 to the men in blue at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva.

“They were able to build pressure on us from the beginning, building momentum, which makes them very difficult to stop,” he said.

Thorn said this forced his side to make mistakes throughout the game, giving away penalties to the Drua side.

“We felt the pressure in different areas of the game. Mainly in our set piece, lineouts, and scrums.”

He admitted that at the end of the day, the Fijian Drua was the better team.

“They’re just a better team, they’re too good.”

Tied 17-all at the breather, Thorn said they were unable to play the second half the way they had intended to.

“We could tell the Drua players gave their all tonight, just throwing their bodies on the line in front of their fans. This just shows what rugby means to the people of Fiji.”

Though the loss was a hard pill to swallow for the Reds, Thorn said they had learned a lot from the game.

“There’s a lot of things we learned here tonight, but hats off to the Drua for the hard work and perseverance during the game.

“Yes, it’s quite disappointing for us, not being able to get the result we wanted, but that’s rugby.”

The Reds finished the regular season in eighth place and will take on the Chiefs in the quarter-finals at 4.35pm on Saturday.