FRU works on proposed tour to South Africa

The Flying Fijians have never had a better Rugby World Cup (RWC) build-up in terms of game time against the top tier rugby nations than this one.

This was the view of Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) board chairman John Sanday.

Speaking from Malaga, Spain, the former Flying Fijians No.8 said for Fiji joining the Rugby Nations Cup and standing alongside Tier 1 nations is the biggest event in FRU’s history.

“It is transformational for Fiji Rugby for all perspectives including financial, commercial, branding and high performance perspectives,” he said.

The Flying Fijians will face Europe's heavyweights of Wales, England, Scotland, France, Ireland and Italy in the Rugby Nations Cup.

Sanday said the quality of these games in 2026 would put the Flying Fijians in a great position for the RWC 2027.

“We have a very good chance of qualifying for the finals of the 2026 Rugby Nations Cup. Also, the Pacific Nations Cup (PNC) will still go ahead next year.”

Sanday highlighted the PNC would give local-based players from the Skipper Cup a chance to develop further.

He also indicated that they are trying to finalise a tour next year to South Africa for a Fiji Warriors type team.

“Fiji will be also participating in next year’s Under-20 World Cup in Georgia too. So when you put it together, we will have a pool of well prepared players to choose our best RWC squad from. It is perfectly aligned and we are excited.”

Meanwhile, the Flying Fijians ended their Northern Tour with a 41-33 win over Spain in Malaga yesterday (Fiji time).

The Tevita Inkanivere captained-side suffered a 38-18 loss to England followed by a 34-21 defeat to France.

“I was looking for at least a win from the two games against the top four nations in the world but the Flying Fijians did us proud with their performance. I’m happy that we showed we are very competitive. We just need to continue working on a few little areas to fine tune, polish it and we will beat them for sure.

“Next year’s Rugby Nations Cup tournament will be another opportunity to beat them. The more regular games we have against them, the sooner we will beat them often too and we have that opportunity now with RNC.”

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