Former All Blacks winger Julian Savea yesterday scored two tries in a losing cause to join former NSW Waratahs player Israel Folau as the all-time top try-scorer across Super Rugby competitions as the Wellington Hurricanes were beaten 27-24 by the Fijian Drua in Round 11 in Suva.
The Drua almost exactly repeated their giant-killing 25-24 win over defending champions the Canterbury Crusaders in Lautoka in Round 3 to emphasize how difficult they are to beat in Fiji.
Once again replacement Kemu Valetini kicked the winning points for the Drua, just as he did against the Crusaders. He first leveled the scores with a penalty in the 76th minute, then put the Drua ahead a minute before fulltime.
Photo: AFP
“It’s good to be back in the winner’s circle,” Drua captain Tevita Ikaniveri said. “We’re fighting for a place in the quarter-finals and we have to make the best of these home games.”
Savea took his tally of tries to 60 in 150 matches, drawing equal at that tally with Folau, who now plays in Japan. With a try in each half, Savea tried to lift the Hurricanes, who were under pressue throughout the match and produced a tepid performance in hot conditions.
Savea played on the right wing and was matched by his Drua opposite, Taniela Rakuro, who also scored a try in each half.
Photo: AFP
“We always knew it was going to be tough and we just weren’t good enough,” Hurricanes captain Ardie Savea said. “The Drua came out and played for the whole 80 [minutes] and put us under a lot of pressure. They capitalized on their chances and it was hard to defend.”
The first half was fast-paced, but low scoring and the Drua mostly had the upper hand. From the first breakdown, Drua scrumhalf Frank Lomani shaped to kick, then passed to send Rakuro away at a gallop down the left touchline.
That set the tone of the match. Lomani was a massive figure, marshaling the Drua attack and should have scored himself just before halftime, but lost the ball as he stretched to place it over the goalline.
In spite of the enterprise, points came slowly. Lomani missed an early penalty, but the Drua set the local crowd alight in the 18th minute when Rakuro crossed on the blindside from a Lomani pass.
The Hurricanes finally got some possession and go forward in the 30th minute and quick hands made a try for Julian Savea in the right corner. That took him to 59 tries and put him briefly in equal second place on the all-time try-scoring list with Doug Howlett, another former All Blacks winger.
The Drua led 7-5 at halftime. The Hurricanes took the lead for the first time with Julian Savea’s second try three minutes into the second half.
Rakuro won back the lead with his second try before the Hurricanes forwards took some control and created tries to prop Xavier Numia and flanker DuPlessis Kirifi. The Hurricanes enjoyed their first comfortable lead at 24-14, but it was reduced it to three points when Meli Derenalagi scored in the 59th minute.
Valetini then decided the match with his two late penalties.
The Crusaders later overtook the Hurricanes for second place on the table with a 48-13 bonus-point win over the Western Force in Christchurch.
In other games, the Waratahs beat the Queensland Reds 32-24 and the Auckland Blues were awarded a penalty try after the final hooter to sneak a 31-30 win over Moana Pasifika, who remain winless this season, while on Friday the Waikato Chiefs continued their unbeaten season with a 52-28 win over the Otago Highlanders.
Additional reporting by staff writer
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS