Western Force head coach Dylan Parsons expects Friday’s Buildcorp Super Rugby Women’s semi-final against the Fijian Drua to be a “good contrast in styles”.
The Force landed in Fiji on Wednesday ahead of their maiden Super W finals appearance against the Drua from 12:35pm WST in Suva.
The visitors are fresh from an entertaining 38-36 win over the ACT Brumbies, where the Force scored four tries from rolling mauls, executing their lineout set-piece within the 22 brilliantly.
“It’s definitely been a strength of ours all season,” Parsons said. “We see that as an opportunity against Fijian Drua.
“They like the unstructured play. We want them to feel uncomfortable and try take that away from them by going to set-piece.
“It’ll be a good contrast in styles. We’ll see who comes out on top.”
It was only three weeks ago when the two sides last met in Fiji, with the Drua triumphing 19-5 on that day.
However, that was played in difficult conditions in Lautoka, not Suva, where the surface copped torrential rain and was muddied by the men’s game played beforehand, with puddles and even frogs on the pitch.
The forecast in Suva on Friday is for rain but the HFC Bank Stadium is expected to drain better than Lautoka. Parsons said those conditions combined with the lessons learned from the last meeting offered reason for optimism of a victory to clinch a maiden Sper W Grand Final berth (the decider will be played in Brisbane on Sunday 28 April from 12pm WST).
“That day we actually felt like we had the right game plan and the blueprint was there but we didn’t execute enough,” Parsons said.
“We’ve got the same plan as last time but we’ll back ourselves around execution this time round.
“The conditions are going to be different as well. It’s going to be a lot drier and it’s a nicer pitch over in Suva. With those changes and also a couple of other little tricks up our sleeve, we back ourselves to do a job there.
“At least the ground under foot is going to be a lot harder and cleaner, so we’ll back ourselves to use our skills and move the ball around but use some of our other strengths as well.
“It’s different conditions, it’s semi-final footy and Fijian Drua, this is their space where they do so well.”
The Force will be boosted by the return of captain Trilleen Pomare, who was rested from the final home-and-away game against the Brumbies.
“She’s our inspirational leader,” Parsons said. “To come back into our team as our skipper gives us a massive boost.
“From that, she’s going to give us that direction and when the times get tough we’ll look to her to lead us through.”
