12 Contracted Reps For Drua Development Squad
About 12 players will be contracted for the Fijian Drua development squad.
This was confirmed by former Drua chief executive officer Brian Thorburn at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva on Wednesday.
A number of players have already signed their contract with the extended squad and would be announced soon.
Those players will train with the Drua side for a number of days in a week.
It could see some High Performance Unit and secondary schools rugby players.
Thorburn said they were looking at players that played at the Vodafone Deans Trophy competition.
“The abundance of talent in Fiji is amazing,” he said.
“There are some who want to be Drua and Flying Fijians players in the future and we want to let them know that they’re going to be part of our family.
Thorburn added that the players would learn, observe and train professionally.
“We’ll get the cream of the crop – those who need some help, who can really benefit from being exposed to the professional environment to get stronger and fitter.
“We’ve got some already locked up and we’ve got a number of others in our sight.”
The list would be announced once all the development players have signed their contracts.
Thorburn returns to Fiji Rugby Union as general manager commercial after officially handing over to new Drua CEO Mark Evans at their Legalega, Nadi base on Monday.
“I look back with great pride. I look forward with great optimism that we’ve got a very, very capable and experienced leader who is going to take it forward and grow every year.
“I look forward to watching on from wherever I am in the future with great pride and optimism,” Thorburn added.
Meanwhile, Evans said having an age group development team for the Drua was not an immediate project he would work on, however, he knows that constant production of their own players is important.
“Being good players in the age group does not mean you’ll be a great player in your club – there is a huge gap and one of the things that successful clubs teams do is they manage that development process really well.
“You really get a team full of recruitment and people move and they get close to whatever.
“But I do firmly believe that if you if you’re ambitious, in the long run, or in the medium run, you probably got to make sure you get that right. “This is because it’s very it’s much harder to do it.”
Feedback: sereana.salalo@fijisun.com.fj
