Queensland have punched their 2025 SMARTECH Super Rugby Women’s final ticket after seeing off a fast-finishing Fijian Drua 54-40 in Brisbane.
The Reds’ six-try opening half laid the platform to bury their 2023 grand final demons with try-scorers Carola Kreis and Shalom Sauaso among their best on home soil.
Super Rugby Women's Grand Final tickets drop on Monday, 7 April at 9:30am via rugby.com.au/tickets.
Flyhalf Lori Cramer also shone from the tee with 12 points while Eva Karpani (two), Tiarna Molloy, Jemma Bemrose and Charli Jacoby found the chalk but the match wasn’t without drama as the Drua launched an astonishing second-half fightback to claw back within seven points.
Skipper Karalaini Naisewa led the way as further tries to Setaita Railumu, Mereoni Nakesa, Vani Arei and Vitilina Naikore dragged the Drua within striking distance before Jacoby’s 74th minute try put the result beyond doubt.
The Reds needed just five minutes to open their account at Ballymore with Kreis fighting her way over from close range after two bouts of multiphase attack deep in Drua territory.
The visitors hit back via their chief weapon – the scrum – with flanker Alfreda Fisher dotting down on the 10-minute mark after a powerful shove but a poor exit from the ensuing kick-off paved way for Reds counterpart Jemma Bemrose to ice a sweeping right-to-left play and reinstate Queensland’s seven-point buffer.
Buoyed, the Reds turned to their tight forwards with Tiarna Molloy rolling over for Queensland’s third try before Layne Morgan and Shalom Sauaso did their best Gregan-Finnegan impersonation with a premeditated ruck-switch play that sent Sauaso storming over untouched.
A 34th minute penalty try from another Queensland maul the margin stretch to 30 points and when Karpani trundled over for try number six, the Reds looked all but home with a healthy 42-5 half time lead.
Or so the Ballymore crowd thought.
With nothing to lose, the visitors threw caution to the wind and found it worked a treat as lock Mereoni Nakesa split the Reds’ defence in the 49th minute.
Nakesa’s solo effort opened the floodgates for a four-try Drua fightback with Naikore’s 50m toe-ahead effort to outpace Charlotte Caslick the pick of an impressive bunch.
But there was to be no Fijian miracle this time with Karpani and Jacoby pinching back crucial momentum-stopping tries with 15 and five minutes remaining to seal the Reds’ grand final berth.
QUEENSLAND REDS 54 (Karpani 2, Kreis, Bemrose, Molloy, Sauaso, Jacoby, pen tries; Cramer 6 cons) def FIJIAN DRUA 40 (Naisewa (2), Fisher, Arei, Naikore, Nakesa tries; Naikore 3, Tisolo 2 cons)
