A brace from Wallabies centre Len Ikitau has led the ACT Brumbies to a hard-fought 28-20 victory over the hard-running Fijian Drua to keep their hopes of a home semi-final alive.
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After getting off to an early lead, the Brumbies ceded the momentum but managed to hold on against the fast-finishing Fijians in Canberra.
Saturday night's win keeps the Brumbies in the running for a top-two finish, trailing the second-placed Blues by five points with four rounds to go in the Super Rugby Pacific regular season.
Coach Stephen Larkham was impressed by his side's resilience to hold out against "one of the Drua's best performances".
"I thought our guys defended exceptionally well," he told reporters.
"Multiple passages there we were under a lot of pressure. With mistake on mistake, penalty on penalty, we didn't help ourselves but we found a way when they got inside our 22 to hold them out."
Ikitau opened the scoring in the sixth minute before returning captain Allan Alaalatoa crossed over two minutes later to give the home side a 14 point advantage.
Ikitau popped up again with the play of the night later in the half, perfectly timing a dart into the opposition 22m zone to link up with a precision Tamati Tua grubber kick and bag his second five-pointer.
Both sides struggled to maintain possession, with handling impacted by the cold and wet conditions.
Vocal Fijian support cajoled the visitors back into the game and was rewarded by a try to Isola Nasilasila on the stroke of halftime.
The Drua maintained the ascendancy after the break and their concerted pressure eventually told when Simione Kuruvoli outflanked the Brumbies right edge to score his first Super Rugby try.
But the home side held their nerve and wrestled back control after the addition of substitute Luke Reimer.
The back-rower won a crucial turnover after several passages of desperate defending and settled the game with a try in the 66th minute.
The Brumbies will travel to Sydney to face the cellar-dwelling NSW Waratahs next week, hoping to gain further ground on the Hurricanes and Blues who face off in a top-of-the-table clash.
Coach Larkham will be sweating on the availability of prop James Slipper, who was taken off in the first half with a shoulder complaint.
"Slipps' leadership, not just with his words but with his actions, is pretty phenomenal for this team, so we'll be doing everything we can to get him out on the paddock," he said.
The Drua will rue their missed opportunities with the Highlanders and Moana Pasifika nipping at their heels.
"I'm very proud of the guys tonight," Drua coach Mick Byrne said.
"We did make a couple of unforced errors at the start of the game and gave them 14 easy points and then after that I thought we were the better team out there."
Australian Associated Press
