Bo Abra's Canberra Vikings will face the Western Force in next Saturday's National Rugby Championship decider after producing some second half heroics to pip defending champions Fijian Drua 28-27 in a thrilling semi-final at Viking Park on Sunday.
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Vikings flyhalf Noah Lolesio kicked an 80th-minute conversion to complete a stunning fightback with the Drua up 22-nil at half-time.
Trailing by six when the full-time siren sounded, Tom Banks broke through the impressive Fijian defence to set up a make-or-break conversion for Lolesio 10m in from the right touch line. The young flyhalf showed no signs of nervousness as he lined up the kick, striking it cleanly and sending them to their third grand final in five years.
As he has done since their Round 4 loss to the Force, Abra started at No.1 for the Vikings, the former Pirates junior seeing 49 minutes.
The Vikings spent what seemed like the entire opening 15 minutes defending, allowing the Drua to take an early 10-point lead. The Fijian team put on an impressive display of ball control, making minimal mistakes despite the offloads flowing freely.
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In contrast, every time it looked like the Vikings were about to score, an error would allow the Drua to regain possession and clear the ball downfield.
With a big job ahead of them in the second half, the Vikings came out of the sheds buzzing. It took just two minutes of second half action for them to finally get some points on the board, controlling the ball before flinging it wide to Tom Wright who simply had to step over the line and ground it untouched.
Quick fire tries to Wright and Angus Allen, with some handy goal kicking from Ryan Lonergan, brought Canberra right back into the contest. Suddenly they were within a point of their opposition with more than 20 minutes remaining in the match. However, the Drua scrum continued its stunning dominance and replacement hooker Ratunaisa Sauvoli eventually burrowed over from close range after three consecutive scrum penalties.
But the conversion attempt from Tikotani hit the left upright and bounced out, meaning the deficit was still less than a converted try.
