The Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) has declared its interest to host a leg in the HSBC Sevens World Series.

The Prime Minister and FRU president, Voreqe Bainimarama, on Friday night made the announcement during the 2016 Rio Olympic Gold Medal anniversary celebration dinner at the Grand Pacific Hotel.

“As President of the Fiji Rugby Union, I am delighted to announce that the Fiji Rugby Union will be bidding for a Fijian leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series to be played here in our country,” the PM said.

“We may be able to host as early as 2020. And we are certainly ready to do so. We’ve shown we are more than capable of major international sporting events, and Fiji belongs on the HSBC circuit.”

FRU chief executive officer John O’Connor told Fiji Sun they hoped to get all Fijians backing their bid during their six months campaign.

“It’s about tapping into the passion of our fans, getting their support and we can go to World Rugby in six to eight months’ time with hundreds of thousands Fijians supporting this bid, saying we want this leg,” O’Connor said.

“We will be announcing our intention to bid starting now, but the important part of that is to get Fiji behind us.

“During the six months there’s a lot of things we got to do, one thing is to demonstrate public support, getting an aerial photo to show demonstration of our country that will involve school children, saying we want 7s,” O’Connor said.

“We are launching a campaign to Fijians to sign up and show their support which will go to World Rugby with the bid that was backed by thousands of people to demonstrate the Fijian fans’ passion for rugby.”

Edited by Naisa Koroi

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