Academy program paving the pathway for Fiji’s Future stars.

Fiji Rugby Academy is an initiative by Fiji Rugby Union which is set up basically as a backup system to provide a pool of players who will be ready for selection into the national team not only for this current year but in the years to come.

FRU Elite Pathway Manager Mr. Bill Gadolo explained that the most important element in the program is the preparation of players into a pro-environment.

“The hope is that the transition for our athletes from the Academy into the representative teams is smooth because players know the protocol, the requirements and expectation of the national teams.

We try to simulate national team environments here (the FRU Academy) in terms of training intensity, training volumes, attitudes, timings and all the components that contribute to Fiji Rugby as a whole,” Gadolo explained.

The program is divided into three core levels in which athletes start from the pre academy under 16s who have an eye on the under 18 national honours, the next level is the apprentice academy who come out of the school boys program aiming for under 20, and the third and final stage is the elite academy which consist of players from the Fiji Airways Drua, Swire Shipping Warriors and some from the under 20 side who all are ready into the Fiji Airways Flying Fijian Selection.

Gadolo emphasize that the academy is selection based and there are coaches that go around during seasons identifying suitable talent to be invited into the academy.

He said that they mainly look at players that fit the criteria for each positions, not only playing in a position locally but at an international standard with the idea to “pick the creams of those crops to come into the academy.”

“We also have players who we pick from the provincial competition, so once we identify them we bring them in into the program and we see how they adapt and how they react to the program and one of the biggest thing is the emphasis of creating players with very good attitude,” Gadolo added.

Gadolo said they try to ensure that there’s a lot of consistency going down into the three core in the academy as there are many talented players who come in but after 8 weeks probation the real picture behind the players and how they adapt into the program surface and “some may lack consistency, some lack communication skills and some just don’t have the attitude or the drive to move on to the next level and this is where we select the people who end up here in the high performance academy.”

The benefit for the players is that they are provided the tools to be able to optimize their talents.

He said that many come in with very raw talent and are provide with the tools, given them the knowledge, education around training support helping them in their growth, and also going through the program will force them into the national teams and to expose them into the international player market which will give these players the opportunity to apply their trade professionally which will earn them very decent income playing professional in their clubs.

The Academy started with 23 players and out of the 23, Mesulame Kunavula (Fiji Airways Fiji 7s), Frank Lomani, Eroni Mawi, Mesulame Dolokoto (Fiji Airways Flying Fijians and Drua) as well as Tumeli Derenalagi and Vilimoni Botitu are current products of the Academy programme.

“These boys were taken into the program at the age of 17, 18 and they stayed with us until they manage to force their way into the national squads,” Gadolo added.