Stallions ready to race
NADROGA Rugby Union will start the 2021 season by competing in the Fiji Rugby Union inaugural Super Sevens Series at Lawaqa Park next weekend and the Jetset 10s tournament in Nadi on January 29-30.
Union president Tiko Matawalu said 2021 would be an important season because it would start on a clean slate.
“We do not want to have a repeat of last year,” Matawalu said.
“We are starting the year by preparing a strong team for the Super Sevens Series at Lawaqa Park. We have a combination of experienced, upcoming players and localbased boys to introduce them into what we anticipate as a very tough season for us.”
The Super Sevens Series is a rugby 7s competition introduced by the Fiji Rugby Union to keep players fit and get more game time as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten sports.
The series will see Fiji 7s reps represent their provinces as the World Rugby Sevens Series await confirmation to resume.
“For Nadroga, we have players such as Peceli Nacebe, Isaia Vugavou, one of our regulars last year who was also part of our tour to New Zealand, Sevuloni Lutu, a member of the Fiji under-18 team in 2019 and Cuvu College team and our U19 team last year. The other BLK 7s players include some of our U19 players so that they can be prepared for the coming season.
“Our 10s team will include some players from the BLK 7s squad and our regulars from the past season. Manu Ratuniyarawa is among our regulars for the Jetset 10s tournament.
“We want to field them now to get more game time and break them before the coming season.”
Nadoga is expected to start its super rugby franchise on the second week of February.
We have a combination of experienced, upcoming players and local-based boys to introduce them into what we anticipate as a very tough season for us
– Tiko Matawalu