I want to play Melbourne Rising on my home turf at Ratu Cakobau Park on September 1, says former Crusaders training squad member

Poasa Waqanibau aims to play on his home turf at Ratu Cakobau Park, Nausori on September 1.

And he is putting in the extra effort to make the Fiji Airways Drua team when they host the Melbourne Rising in round one of the 2018 Australian National Rugby Championship.

Playing for Tailevu, the Vunisinu, Rewa native is one of two players from the 33-member squad selected from the Vodafone Vanua Championship competition.

The other is Jone Sawailau who played for Lautoka and was named in the 2018 New Zealand 7s extended squad for the Rugby World Cup Sevens.

“The first game will be at Ratu Cakobau Park, in Nausori, my home turf and I will try my best to make the cut,”Waqanibau said.

“It will be an honour to be a Drua and I’m training hard and doing my best to be selected.”

After playing in the Junior World Championship in 2014, he moved to New Zealand where he played for Border RC in Wanganui for two seasons.

In 2017 he moved to Canterbury and played for the Crusaders Knights and Crusaders during the Brisbane 10s

“I always wanted to play for my country and grateful for this opportunity,” he said.

Waqanibau plays at centre and the former Ratu Kadavulevu School student thanked his mother Akanisi Voavoa for her support.

In an earlier interview with SUNsports, Waqanibau said;

“My family and I had to go through a lot of struggles. My mum had to make pudding and sell it so that we can survive and the money my father earned was only enough to buy food for us and that motivated me. Only God knows how my parents struggled.”

Edited by Osea Bola

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