Australia and New Zealand likely to host Fiji's 2028 home matches

Australia and New Zealand could host the Fiji Water Flying Fijians’ home matches during the 2028 Nations Championship.

Fiji Rugby Union chief executive officer Koli Sewabu said the United States was another option, however visa bond requirements made it tough.

“This year and 2028, we’ve been given neutral venues to decide, so we choose and decide where that is,” Sewabu said.

“The U.S is out of the question. We’re glad we didn’t take the games there – initially because that was part of the plan.

“We also have Australia and New Zealand, not Fiji yet, because we don’t have the facility to cater for that.

“Hopefully, if we can have a stadium by 2030, then we should be able to host them in London, in Suva, wherever the stadium they will be. And that’s the dream, to bring them home and play them here in front of our people.”

The inaugural Nations Championship which kicks off in July will take place every two years on non-Rugby World Cup and British & Irish Lions tour years.

FRU took a major step in March, establishing its first permanent home ground after lodging an application for a 60-acre block of land on Saweni Beach Road.

Sewabu said while the dream of having Fiji’s own stadium won’t happen in the next two years.

“This year - because we’ve never done it before, we looked at so many other factors around it, and apart from just rugby and fan engagement and attendance, we see the United Kingdom is a really good opportunity.

“They have big stadiums where thousands of people can attend.

“We’re unfortunate not to play Wales at Principality Stadium, which has got more than more than 50,000 capacity, but we’re grateful that we managed to secure Cardiff, which is more than 30,000 crowd.

“When we look at the game against England, traditionally, they play their home game in Twickenham. The people from the north of London, Northern England, they never get the opportunity to actually come and watch, but we are now bringing England and Fiji to them. So, you know, within the first week, more than 50% of the seats was sold, there’s 50,000, 54,000 seats.

“Scotland is a little bit different, and we’re in the partnership with them. So they sell it to their members, who are in the thousands, and then that gets released to general sales.

“It’s looking highly likely that we’re going to be successful RNC hosting in the UK.

“But who knows, come 2028, we’ll, you know, we’ll review what we have now. We look at our other diaspora.”

Fiji faces Wales at Cardiff City Stadium in their opening match on July 4 before they host England at Hill Dickinson Stadium on July 11.

The series concludes on July 18, with a clash against Scotland at Murrayfield Stadium.