‘7s and 15s Leakage a Worry’
Evans was CEO at Harlequins for 10 years.
Fijian Drua chief executive officer Mark Evans is assisting the Fiji Rugby vuvale in the reduction of the leakage of sevens and 15s players offshore.
Evans made the comment in Suva following Fiji Sun’s acting Publisher/CEO Rosi Doviverata signing the media partnership with Drua yesterday.
“We now have a Drua development squad which consists of 12 young men whom a few will graduate to the Drua top 37 next year,” Evans said.
“To help reduce leakages in the sevens and 15s; players don’t need to leave the islands (Fiji) to play at international level.
“They can remain here, follow the pathway - Deans, provincial, Drua to the Flying Fijians.
“They don’t need to go overseas, they can remain here in the islands – with the Drua pathway we can curb that.
“The leakage is one of the reasons Fiji, at international level is not able to break to the top 10 or 8.
“The Fijian national side always has limited time getting together to prepare for an international match or tour because the core number of players are based overseas.
“These players are registered in more than 10 different clubs and countries; the limited time of their getting together to train is difficult to achieve the results we want. “The only time Fiji performs is during the World Rugby Cup because they come together for five weeks to prepare.
“Five weeks training to get the right combination is important and the longer a team prepares together the better they are able to read their mates’ body language, kicking, tackling, passing etcetera and they communicate and perform better. “They are not the Barbarians team where they just get together and shine on the day of play with their impromptu skills.”
A highly regarded sports leader with 30 years of experience and sports leadership, administration, coaching and education, Evans, 63, took up the three-year contract on October 17 last year;
He was CEO at Harlequins for ten years (1990-2000) before setting up his own company, Capacity Consulting Limited.
He almost became the head coach of Wales in 2004, spent time in Australia, where he worked in both rugby league (Melbourne Storm) and rugby union (Western Force),
and enjoyed a recent foray into netball as chair of the Vitality Netball League up til 2021.
Travelling half way round the world to get to Fiji, Evans had anticipated the sea, sun and sand but surprised with the recent share of heavy downpours. Evans after watching videos of the world’s greatest rugby fans (Fijians at the two Drua games last year) said that triggered his accepting the three year contract.
“There is potential for Drua to grow, it has been a long wait to get into Super Rugby. Watching those videos was crazy, rugby to Fijians is like football in Argentina.”