Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

How Fiji's new Super team plan to compete without six figure salaries

Players from both teams participate in a prayer after the round 6 NRC match between Melbourne Rising and Fijian Drua at Casey Fields in 2019. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Fijian Drua chief executive officer Brian Thorburn had admitted the new Super Rugby franchise will have to contract players not eligible to play for Fiji to ensure they can make an impact in the new competition in 2022.

ADVERTISEMENT

Thorurn told Fiji Times the intention was to concentrate on a squad of players who either are capped or could be chosen by Fiji but a lack of options in certain key positions would require the signing of players from other countries.

He explained: “There is a possibility that we may seek to contract a very small number of players who are not eligible for Fiji in the first year or two, but only to fill positions where we do not have adequate depth from Fiji players. Our intention is to only recruit players who are already capped for Fiji, or who are eligible to play for Fiji.

Video Spacer

Pre-Season & Lions debrief with Hamish Watson, Ryan Wilson & Max Lahiff | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 1

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
    • Chapters
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
      Video Spacer

      Pre-Season & Lions debrief with Hamish Watson, Ryan Wilson & Max Lahiff | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 1

      “Because our licence has been awarded so late, my expectation at the moment is that there might be one or two such players in the first year, but the vast majority of our 37 man squad will comprise players who are eligible to play for the Flying Fijians, either immediately or in the future.”

      Fiji Rugby chief executive officer John O’Connor has admitted the Drua team cannot currently compete with the “six figure” salaries being offered by European clubs as they prepare to enter the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific competition.

      The Drua management has drawn up a budget of £4.5m($13 m) for its initial year in the competition with an added £700,000 ($2m) in costs to have the team based in Australia next year.

      The team is expected to sign 38 players including overseas-based players but O’Connor said: “We are starting on a journey and our players here are amateurs. We are transiting them into the professional environment. It’s our first year and we will continue to grow and learn as we participate in the competition. That is why we are not competing with those players who are on six figure contracts in Europe.”

      ADVERTISEMENT

      It is expected the squad will include members of the gold medal winning Fiji men’s 7s team from the 2020 Tokyo Games although some players have already taken up lucrative contracts in France.

      O’Connor added: “We want to create an environment and platform for them to be able to attract six figure contracts in the Northern Hemisphere and anywhere else in the rugby playing world.”

      ADVERTISEMENT

      O2 Inside Line: This Rose | Episode 1

      New Zealand v Ireland | Rugby World Cup 1995 | The Vaults

      Behind the scenes with the NEW ZEALAND women's sevens team in Perth | HSBC SVNS Embedded | Episode 5

      Argentina v Australia | HSBC SVNS Perth 2025 | Men's Final Match Highlights

      New Zealand v Australia | HSBC SVNS Perth 2025 | Women's Final Match Highlights

      The Dupont Ploy: How France went from underdogs to Olympic gods | The Report

      Former rugby player is truly an NFL superstar | Walk the Talk | Jordan Mailata

      Boks Office | Episode 33 | Dupont's Toulouse Too Good

      Trending on RugbyPass

      Comments

      0 Comments
      Be the first to comment...

      Join free and tell us what you really think!

      Sign up for free
      ADVERTISEMENT

      Latest Features

      Comments on RugbyPass

      R
      RedWarrior 4 minutes ago
      Many England fans echoing the same gripe following Six Nations loss

      The English defense was excellent in the first half. This is considering Ireland's attack has improved significantly since the Autumn with former Leinster attack coach Goodman. Ireland were beaten by NZ in the Autumn, are behind SA and arguably behind France so de facto 4th in order (rankings take time to catch up) As Eddie Jones said Ireland are still in that elite group so England's domination in the first half is noteworthy.

      I believe they have spent the time since the Autumn largely on defence. On broken play they were relying on Smiths instint along with some jiggery pokery. For Smiths early line break a Twindaloo blocked Baird which left the gap for smith. It looked like he did Aki, but Baird was a little late arriving and clever play by Tom Curry allowed the gap for Smith. Earls line break was Smith spotting Baird coming out and beating him with a beautiful pass to Earl.

      We saw the rehearsed plays for a couple of Ireland's tries. The Aki try was just identifying that England tended to hide Smith on the wing creating a vulnerability which Ireland exploited with one of Akis great finishes.

      Although Ireland were relaxing at the end the two English tries were good enough quality and we may see more of it next week (Scotland will also have taken note).

      Although on the easier side of the draw Borthwick almost took England to a RWC final.

      But in common with the top4 you need to have firepower to get those tries in big games. Can Borthwick manage that? I don't think so.

      Next week even if England have a great first half again, you would be looking at France converting 3 of those Irish chances and pushing on after the break.

      Can Borthwick develop a plan to beat France in the next few years. If the answer is no England need to find someone who can.

      9 Go to comments
      LONG READ
      LONG READ What trends you should be looking out for in this year's Six Nations What trends you should be looking out for in this year's Six Nations
      Search