FIJIANA XV GEAR UP FOR OCEANIA CHAMPIONSHIP: 18 Days to Go Until Kick-Off in Sigatoka

With just 18 days remaining until the highly anticipated Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship kicks off in Fiji, the Vodafone Fijiana XV are deep into preparations in Nadi.

The tournament, set to begin on July 6th in Sigatoka, will see Fiji take on regional rivals Tonga and Samoa, with the opening match against Tonga being seen as a crucial tone-setter.

Head Coach Ioan Cunningham said playing in front of a home crowd is always significant and the momentum that can be gained from a strong start.

“It’s awesome to play at home, it’s our home ground and the support is huge for us … it means so much having our local support,” Cunningham said.

“It’s really important that we start well with the first game against Tonga and important that we put our foot down on how we want to play the game and build towards Samoa, which will be a tough test a week later.”

The Fijiana XV have been building steadily since their last outing against the Wallaroos in Suva.

Cunningham said he is pleased with the current competition within the squad.

“Preparation is going well. It’s good that we’ve got great competition with player numbers in our group,” he said.

“We have some franchise players that performed really well in the franchise matches and deserved to be here. We’ve also introduced some of the 7s players just for them to observe our environment and obviously looking at them as we move closer to the World Cup.”

He added, “It’s exciting for us, and a good opportunity to grow on some of the good parts of the game from the Wallaroos but also develop in the areas we need to work on for the Oceania Championship,” Cunningham added.

All eyes will be on Lawaqa Park when the tournament kicks off on July 6th.