Vodafone Flying Fijians head coach John McKee believes the six local players selected for the Europe Tour next month have the ability to make it into the starting line up against the Barbarians, Japan and England.

The players are Eremasi Radrodro, Mosese Voka, Jale Sassen, Mesake Doge, Joeli Veitayaki and Serupepeli Vularika.

“Very pleasing for me to see number of our local players who have just returned from the Americas Pacific Challenge in Uruguay,”McKee said.

“It was great performance from the local boys and they deserved to get the nod for the tour.

“We got some players involved in the Mitre 10 Cup premiership/championship in New Zealand who will join us in Toulouse, France next Monday.”

McKee anticipates a strong challenge in all their three games first against Barbarians in Belfast (November 11) England at Twickenham (November 19) and Japan in Vannes, France on November 26.

“Our Barbarians game is an ideal build up for our England and Japan games. It’s a very challenging us as we played well against England in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

“Likewise we cannot forget how Japan beat South Africa so we have exciting challenges ahead.

The team will assemble in Toulouse on Monday before travelling to Belfast on Friday for their first game. The team will also have a friendly match with Georgia on Wednesday.

The six local players with team officials will depart the country today.

Qera to lead

After missing out in the Pacific Nations Cup veteran Akapusi Qera will lead the team.

“Qera got commitment during the PNC campaign so now he’s available and will captain the team in this tour and will have few senior players to share the workload,” McKee said.

Edited by Osea Bola

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