Fiji Rugby board to meet World Rugby team, sets Olympic target

The Fiji Rugby Union Trustees Board will be meeting with a team from World Rugby in Suva this week to confirm funding for Fiji Rugby and Test match schedules for the Flying Fijians moving towards the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

Board chairman Peter Mazey revealed this to RNZ Pacific in an interview on Tuesday.

And the FRU is serious about both the Fijian men’s and Fijiana women’s sevens rugby teams winning gold medals at the 2024 Olympic Games in France, despite the tough challenges both teams face in their build-up.

That has seen sevens players being contracted from now until after the end of the Olympics.

Mazey revealed that a team from World Rugby was arriving in Suva on Tuesday for meetings with the FRU Trustees Board and management.

Trustees work

“World Rugby are here today. The trustees will be meeting with World Rugby this week. They arrived today and will be here for the rest of the week,” Mazey said.

“We are finalising with the Trustees what funding will World Rugby be putting in place for high performance and development budgets. And we are doing our own budgets right at the moment for operations as well, including all the competitions.”

Mazey said one of the biggest achievements so far since they came into operation earlier this year was contracting all national representatives and putting key performance indicators for them as well.

“So, all our international players are now contracted. Our sevens boys and girls they’re on contracts. And not only are the main teams contracted but also our development squads are contracted,” he said.

“For seven that’s right through to just past the Olympics in 2024, so for over a year.

“The Flying Fijians come under contract when they go into camp, of course, because they’re already in contracts internationally and with the Drua. And of these contracts even the players have KPIs as well, just the same as the coaches.

“They have the contracts that are very clear on KPIs and they were based on winning various tournaments.”

Mazey said the Trustees have worked hard since their appointment and with World Rugby’s blessings have looked at putting in place systems and a constitution that will be reviewed before it is being adopted for use for the new-look Fiji Rugby.

“There’s been a lot of changes and we have set up a very powerful commercial division, commercial and broadcasting so they’ll be working with people like yourself and with the broadcasters also with all their sponsors.

“We are building up on our sponsor base to make sure that Fiji Rugby is financially viable. And then as promised, in the beginning of the year, a group of people, which includes professionals, lawyers and union representatives that will be constitutional review committee, which will be looking at what will be the outcome of the new look Rugby for Fiji.”

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