When Fijian Drua coach Mick Byrne was asked by a reporter following his side’s Super Rugby Pacific victory over the Melbourne Rebels in Round 6 if he, prior to the season, would’ve taken three wins from six matches to start the year, the former Australian rules footballer chuckled a bit before answering.

It was almost as if even he couldn’t believe the types of performances he was seeing out of the second-year squad he was coaching in one of the world’s premier club rugby competitions. 

Even with Byrne seeing them every day in training and games, the Drua’s showings in 2023 have been remarkable and beyond belief.

“Yeah, I probably would’ve,” Byrne said. “I would’ve taken it reluctantly, because I look back over the last couple of weeks, and I thought there was another one there for us. But, yes, for sure. It’s a good question, and where we were this time last year to where we are this year, it’s good to have the three wins on the board.”

Doubling up on the Warm-up ?#TosoDrua #PacificAusSports pic.twitter.com/k2g4dIERu8

— Fijian Drua (@Fijian_Drua) April 14, 2023

Two teams, the Drua and Moana Pasifika, were brought into Super Rugby for the 2022 season as groundbreaking clubs representing the rugby-mad south Pacific – the Drua for Fiji, in particular, and Moana Pasifika more for the other Pacific Islands.

Both squads struggled in their inaugural seasons, finishing anchored to the bottom of the league table on the two lowest point totals in the competition.

In Year 2, while Moana Pasifika (0-8 so far) still is trying to find its footing, the Drua have emerged as a surging side with a dangerous style that ensures no team, not even the four-time defending Super Rugby champion, is safe.

The Fijians entered their Round 7 bye at 3-3 on 13 points and squarely in one of the eight places needed for playoff qualification, a remarkable achievement, considering their paltry 2-12 record and just 12 points recorded a year ago. 

Though there’s still a long way to go before the regular season closes, and things can change rapidly until then, the Drua have set themselves up to be very much in the hunt to make the postseason and show to the world that, yes, players from the Pacific Islands can play with the mighty clubs from New Zealand and Australia that have done their part in ruling Super Rugby for decades.

“We’ve come a long way in a short period of time in our professionalism (and) the understanding of the game,” Byrne said after the Rebels match, which the Drua won 38-28 in front of a raucous home crowd in Suva. “Full credit to the players to taking on that learning and being able to come out under pressure and give a performance that is very, very close to what we set out to do. It’s very pleasing.”

Every win this season has been a milestone for the Drua, with each point earned inching them closer and closer to playoff rugby. But no victory in their club’s short history has tasted sweeter than the one they got in Round 3.

The Drua shocked the Crusaders, winners of every Super Rugby season (including the COVID-created regional competitions) since 2017, with a 25-24 stunner in Lautoka, punctuated by a game-winning penalty kick from debutant fly-half Kemu Valetini after regular time had passed. 

You think the crowd enjoyed that one?!

Iosefo Masi brings the house down in Lautoka ?#DRUvCRU #SuperRugbyPacific pic.twitter.com/I7hzc1VtpX

— Super Rugby Pacific (@SuperRugby) March 11, 2023

It perhaps was the most clear-cut example of Byrne’s quote that his team had made massive strides. The Crusaders, on their way to last year’s Super Rugby title, smashed the Drua 61-3 in their only meeting of 2022.

The Fijian national team has never defeated New Zealand in international competition, but at Churchill Park last month, against a Crusaders squad littered with All Blacks stalwarts and legends, the feeling of victory had to have been pretty close to if that had happened.

“I’m really happy to get the win, especially the way we did,” said Drua hooker Tevita Ikanivere, who captained his side against the Crusaders. “Very thankful for the boys, working hard for the week. We believed in ourselves, saying we could beat the Crusaders, and we did here today.”

Good vibrations have, for the most part, continued for the Drua. 

The hiccups still are there as byproducts of the club’s infancy and the strength of Super Rugby as a whole, after all – the Brumbies ran over the Drua for seven tries Friday in their return from bye in Round 8, with Ben O’Donnell torching the Fijians for three scores in a 43-28 win for the title-chasing Aussies.

But with wins already against the Rebels, Crusaders and their island rival Moana Pasifika (via a 36-34 nail-biter on the season’s opening weekend), the Drua can appreciate what they’ve done and where they’ve emerged from. 

They can look at their point total and take solace in the fact that there still is much left for which to play. They can strut out onto a pitch weekly with the strength and support of a country behind them – and utilize it by competing with some of the best players in the world.

Belief and confidence can get contagious. For the Drua right now, as they chase history for their country’s rugby scene, they’ve got the fever in the best of ways.

“All in all, as we set on this journey that we’re on, we’re learning as we go,” Byrne said after the Rebels match. “We’ve had 20-odd games of Super Rugby, and we’re learning every week … we’ve had a couple of disappointing losses to teams behind us. We talked about it as a team that (against) teams behind us on the ladder, we’ve got to take a jump. We’ve done that today (against the Rebels).”