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Kalaveti Ravouvou

Wow!! What a game that is to reflect a fantastic Saturday night of Super Rugby Pacific between the Queensland Reds & Fijian Drua, that went down through the wire at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

Reds opened the account with a big score from full-back Jordan Petaia before Harry Wilson scored the 2nd TRY, as the home team are 12-6 at half-time before they continued to stay ahead going into the 2nd half. Meanwhile, the Drua came back from two three-point goals earlier on into three big scores late in the 2nd half, where the new start Super Rugby team almost captured an upset in front of the Reds. However, it’s Seru Uru on the blindside back row who saved the Reds’ night, thanks to a game-winning TRY that secured their unbeaten start of the 2022 campaign by five points, 33-28.

The Reds have plenty to fix in the next coming days when a messy attacking shape and ill-discipline almost put them on the brink of a shock loss v Drua. It’s not a good look when their starting frontline of Harry Hoopert & Josh Nasser were sent to the naughty chair for 10 minutes during the 1st half, as they better be careful the next time Queensland faces the Brumbies, or else they will be punished big time. However, the Reds have done enough that put themselves past the safe line first. The build-up momentum is good where they were able to stay ahead, while extending that winning share. And they managed to bounce back following the Drua’s quickfire spell late in the 2nd half when Seru Uru came in to save the day. But as said earlier, they will need to watch their discipline and get their attacking shape organized, if the Reds are to beat the Brumbies on Friday night.

Meanwhile, so unlucky from the Drua who were almost so close towards pulling that shock upset v Reds. We love how they spotted the Reds’ ill-discipline and disjointed attack, where the Drua were able to stop them from scoring at times. We also look at the example of how inside center Kalaveti Ravouvou intercepted the ball off the back end of the Reds’ messy attacking mistakes during the first few mins of play, having ran off over halfway and almost scored, when he couldn’t find any numbers around him. It gave a preview of the Drua’s plan to haunt the Reds’ later on & again almost succeeded with three quickfire tries in five minutes late in the 2nd half. The only weakness Drua needs to work on is their first 40, when some ill-discipline and a lack of finishing organization held them back before they left it too late.

The Reds will now travel to Canberra on Friday night v ACT Brumbies at GIO Stadium, while Drua will have their home game next Saturday in Sydney v Western Force at Leichardt Oval.

It will be interesting to see whether the Brumbies will stay 1st or see the Reds knock them down to 2nd in the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific standings after Round 5.

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Hats off to Seru Uru, who just became the home team’s saviour tonight for the Queensland Reds, He was hard at work for the whole time on the blindside back row when Uru protected his side’s defense, as well as being involved going forward with the attack. And he kept the Reds on their toes where Uru not only helped them score a couple of tries, but he also took down the winning try himself with two minutes to spare. Competition is good for Uru, having started the last two matches v Western Force & Drua, as he hopes to stay at No.6 on Friday and test himself against a tougher opposition like the Brumbies.

Next up is Jordan Petaia where he started at full-back this time within the Reds XV v Drua tonight. He possesses so much pace and power in the Reds backline engine room, where Petaia was able to make good use of his natural game both in attack and defense. Not only how Petaia was able to protect the Reds via Try saving tackles, but he also benefited from these support numbers around him when switching to attack, including his opening TRY that launched the Reds’ scoring account. He may have been knocked down a few times with some bruises, but Petaia never gave up to help the Reds stay ahead, as he’s one hell of a hard-working backline player to watch. It will be interesting to see who will be the best of the 15s in Australia, when Petaia will go up against the Brumbies’ full-back in Tom Banks during Round 5 on Friday night.

And Kalaveti Ravouvou stood out for the Fijian Drua on the inside midfield at the No.12 shirt. He gave the Reds a huge warning that there’s trouble looming ahead, especially when he noticed the Reds’ messy attack at times earlier on, intercepted the ball along the way, and almost scored a TRY. His attacking influence in the Drua squad has led to more threats fired back to the Reds, where they were almost closer to securing an upset within 10-15 mins left. Although Drua was unlucky to lose with a brilliant 2nd half show tonight, but Ravouvou was the one who created this Drua attacking input that almost sent the Reds shockwaves.

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