A Birds-eye view of the Fiji Rugby Union High Performance Program



The FRU's Suva Centre of Excellence - under the watchful eye of Greg Mumm (left) and National Trainer Naca Cawanibuka




The FRU have assembled the pick of the players from the PRC to train in an extended RWC squad - these are the locally-based players that are being targeted for Rugby World Cup

 The Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) High Performance Program has undergone remarkable change over the past 12 months and has positioned itself nicely to ensure that the Flying Fijians will surely be the best prepared Fijian team for any Rugby World Cup when it travels to New Zealand to take on the World's best in what is arguably the toughest pool at RWC2011.

The Annual High Performance Review was undertaken last week over two days in Suva, Fiji. The review is undertaken jointly by the International Rugby Board and the Fiji Rugby Union. Comprising a desktop review and site visits to the Licensed Training Centres, the review looks at over 100 different aspects of the Union's High Performance Program with a view to identifying weaknesses and ensuring that the program is well positioned to produce and assist in preparing world class athletes.

The FRU High Performance Program services all national teams including the Flying Fijians, the world famous Fiji Sevens team, National U20's (which will be competing at this month's World Championship in Italy), the Fiji Warriors (Fiji's A team which competes in the IRB Pacific Rugby Cup) and women's Sevens. It also is responsible for servicing Fiji's Academy program which offers three levels of scholarships to over 70 athletes and referees. The scholarships allow the best locally-based players, and those considered to be future Flying Fijians and Fijian Sevens representatives, with an opportunity to train on fulltime scholarships.

The FRU runs two 'Centres of Excellence' - one each on the east (Suva)  and west (Nadi) coast of the main island (Viti Levu). In addition to the two Centres of Excellence, the Union has established three 'satellite training centres' in Lautoka, Sigatoka and Nausori. Two more satellite centres will be opened in 2012. All training centres are staffed by fulltime managers and IRB accredited strength and conditioning coaches. All Scholarship athletes train at one of these centres when they are not assembled at one of the Centres of Excellence. This structure ensures that all players train under the supervision of appropriately qualified coaches in periodised training programs prepared by the National trainer and Academy coaches throughout the year. This system addresses one of the biggest challenges of Fiji's High Performance Program - that of providing a supervised Daily Training Environment for all it's players spread across a geographically diverse and dispersed country.

The FRU's locally-based RWC Extended squad in skills training

The FRU's Centre of Excellence in Suva provides a High Performance Training Environment for all HP Athletes as well as provincial representative players

The FRU Sports Science/Sports Medicine program is the jewel in the crown of the FRU HP Program. Managed by the SSSM Commission, which comprises the creme de la creme of Fiji's SSSM fraternity, including physiotherapists, orthopaedic surgeons, nutritionists and a sports psychologist, the FRU SSSM Program provides free and comprehensive SSSM services to all athletes within the FRU's HP Program.
The FRU has six referees on scholarship within their Academy. Significant improvements have been made in Fiji's referee program in recent years. Two referees, James Boliabu and Napolioni Locoloco were appointed to the 2010/11 HSBC Sevens World Series and Locoloco became the first Fijian to officiate the final of an international IRB tournament when he took charge of the final of the 2010 IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy.

Newly formed partnerships with the Canterbury Crusaders and Saracens are providing access to some of the best high performance environments in World Rugby for the pick of Fiji's locally-based players. In all, four of Fiji's best locally-based players, as selected from the recently completed IRB Pacific Rugby Cup, are completing scholarships at the Crusaders and Saracens in a bid to fine-tune their skills and give them the best possible chance of selection in the Flying Fijians for the Pacific Nations Cup and ultimately Rugby World Cup.

The FRU has recruited aggressively for coaches for Rugby World Cup - bringing back Shannon Fraser and Greg Mumm who were so instrumental in Fiji's 2007 RWC success. However this time they have had much longer to work with National coach Sam Domoni to prepare the team. With Fiji's European stars starting to arrive back, and the best of the locally based players in a closely monitored program, Fiji is well placed for yet another successful RWC.