Almost midway through the Super Rugby season and Australia has all four sides inside the top six after the Western Force burst out of the blocks to smash the Fijian Drua 52-15 on Sunday evening.
In typically hot conditions in Perth, the Force did a number on the Drua early running in three tries inside the opening 15 minutes, including two to hooker Nic Dolly, to lead 19-0.
The tries didn’t stop, with Dolly grabbing a first-half hat-trick while Harry Potter joined Carlo Tizzano on the scoreboard.
Although the Drua threatened to make a comeback by scoring either side of the break, Tizzano and Potter grabbed themselves each a second try for the afternoon.
Fly-half Ben Donaldson then put the cherry on top by scoring out wide to bring up the Force’s half-century.
Former Wallaby turned pundit Morgan Turinui tipped his hat at the performance.
“Excellent from the Western Force, underlined by their beginning where they were ruthlessly efficient in the first half and controlled the game well from there,” he said on Stan Sport.
“They measured the Drua and then reaccelerated to post one of the most impressive scores in their history.”
Marley Pearce in action for the Force during their big win over the Fijian Drua at HBF Park on March 23, 2025. (Photo by James Worsfold/Getty Images)
The victory was the perfect response from the Force after dropping three matches on the bounce, including a heavy loss to the Crusaders across the ditch, and saw Simon Cron’s men move up into sixth spot on 14 points.
“It was nice to let the ball run there for a bit,” Force skipper Jeremy Williams said.
“We wanted to start fast and keep the momentum rolling and we did that in the first half. We probably dropped off in the first ten minutes of the second half, but I felt like we gained back the momentum and finished off well.”
The Drua looked rudderless for much of the game, but they weren’t helped by the Force’s flying start and commitment in defence.
“The Force came out fighting,” Drua skipper Tevita Ikanivere said.
“We talked about starting fast and unfortunately we didn’t and they kept coming at us and we were on the backfoot the whole time.”
Asked why the Drua struggled to gain an early foothold in the clash, the quality hooker questioned whether they had the right “mindset” to compete in the energy-sapping hot conditions.
“We talked about kick battles and getting go forward, but we didn’t get that,” Ikanivere said.
Cron was naturally a satisfied man, but the feisty coach also conceded his side needed to learn from their ill-discipline either side of the break after being on the wrong end of an 11-5 penalty count, which included seven straight penalties to start the second half.
“I thought we did some great stuff out there today. We held possession well in big patches and that wore them down a little bit,” Cron said.
While the Drua struggled to find space on the fringes, the Force’s backline had a field day.
Potter, in particular, scored two stunning tries.
The Wallaby made the Drua look silly in the first half, cutting the visitors to shreds to score one of the individual tries of the year.
His second effort was just as spectacular, bursting onto a nice inside pass from Donaldson to break free before toeing ahead to beat the final defender to score.
Fullback Mac Grealy was also threatening in the loose, while Donaldson’s running and short passing game was also fantastic despite one loose pass in the hot conditions midway through the second half.
But the pay out wide came after the Force’s big men won the battle up front, with the front-row, including Tom Robertson, having a great shift early.
Dolly jumped on the end of a maul twice, while he also pounced on an overthrown lineout by Ikanivere.
Locks Darcy Swain and Williams made the Drua’s afternoon difficult, while Tizzano was everywhere on both sides of the ball.
The Force travel to Brisbane next week to take on the Reds, while the Drua have an extra week of soul-searching before hosting the Crusaders in a fortnight.
