Wallabies captain Michael Hooper has made a successful, try-scoring comeback as the NSW Waratahs crushed an ill-disciplined Fijian Drua 38-14 to keep their Super Rugby Pacific finals hopes alive.
Hooper played the entire second half in his first outing since suffering a foot injury in Australia's spring tour loss to Eddie Jones' England at Twickenham last November.
The champion openside flanker made an immediate impact but really didn't need to as the Drua proved their own worst enemy at Cbus Super Stadium on Friday night.
The Drua spent half an hour playing a man short after their normally inspirational captain Nemani Nagusa was red-carded for a late and high tackle on Tane Edmed, then halfback Frank Lomani copped a yellow for a third illegal tackle.
The Waratahs punished the Drua immediately after both dismissals, piling on 24 points in the influential duo's absence.
"It's always tough when you lose men quite early in the game and our obviously discipline let us down," Drua fly-half Teti Tela lamented.
"We showed glimpses of what we can do with the ball but the Waratahs did a good job hanging on to it when we were a man short.
"It's always tough, especially at Super Rugby level and we've definitely got to work hard on our discipline for sure."
The scores were locked at 7-7 when Nagusa was given his marching orders, after speed machine Vinaya Habosi's lovely counter-attack strike cancelled out Dylan Pietsch's 15th-minute try for the Waratahs.
But Hooper's impressive fill-in No.7 Charlie Gamble capitalised on a NSW driving maul a minute barely after the Drua lost their captain and No.8.
Hooker David Porecki and stand-in captain Jed Holloway also crossed while Nagusa was cooling off to give the Tahs a 24-7 lead that they would never relinquish.
Playing his first match for NSW since the final round of the 2020 Super Rugby AU season, after a stint in Japan with Toyota Verblitz before his injury, Hooper's five-pointer also came less than a minute after Lomani was yellow-carded.
From 31-7 down, there was no coming back for the Drua as the Waratahs climbed to fourth on the table, temporarily at least, before a bye next week, then a trip to Perth to play the Western Force.
Holloway said having Hooper back on deck, especially with the Trans-Tasman leg of the tournament looming from round 10, was a huge boost for the Waratahs.
"His name speaks for itself and just having him around the crew is invaluable," Holloway said.
