The Fiji Rugby Union

Fiji Rugby are the governing body for rugby in the Pacific Island nation of Fiji.

Based in the nation’s capital of Suva, Fiji Rugby administers rugby for the 36 affiliated Unions across 14 provinces with a registered member base of 30,000 provincial and schools players (not including club rugby or grassroots development).

There are 18 representative and franchise teams that represent Fiji on the global stage in both XVs and 7s disciplines.  The Flying Fijians are the senior men’s international team and the Fijiana the senior women.  The Fijian 7s and Fijiana 7s are the representative 7s teams and the men are consistently world champions.

Fiji Rugby High Performance Unit runs an academy programme for men and women nurturing the development of elite level players identified for national pathway programmes.

Fiji Rugby facilitates four major domestic rugby competitions; the Skipper Cup (incorporating the Farebrother Sullivan Trophy), the Vodafone Vanua Championship, the Vodafone FSSRU Deans Trophy and the Vodafone Kaji Cup.

There are 13 unions in Viti Levu, five in Vanua Levu, with the remaining 18 on outer islands.

The 36 affiliated unions conduct club competitions with their respective areas, with numbers of clubs numbering more than 600 clubs in total.

In addition to this structure, there are many village teams, which are too isolated, or too little in number to form a union. Almost every village has a team although those not attached to a union may play only occasional matches.

The Fiji archipelago consists of over 300 islands, of which about 100 are inhabited. The main island, Viti Levu, and the large island to the north, Vanua Levu, make up 85% of the total land mass of Fiji. The population of Fiji is 900,000.

Rugby is the leading sport throughout the Fiji Islands, with an estimated 60,000 senior players and 20,000 schoolchildren. It is believed that Fiji has the highest player-population ratio of any rugby playing nation; a recent survey by the World Rugby showed Fiji had more post-schools rugby players than New Zealand and only slightly less than Australia.

Administration

In 2001, Fiji Rugby embraced professional rugby. Sweeping changes were made to the constitution, administration and management of Fiji rugby following loss-making seasons in 1999 and 2000 by the national body as it grappled with the demands of the new world of professional rugby.

In 2015 a further era of organisational evolution was entered into with  a new board structure and a plan to intensify the professionalism of the game on the island and globally.  Fiji Rugby was invited in 2018 to take a position on the World Rugby Council and furthermore a number of High Performance and administrative staff serve positions on sub-committees for World Rugby.

The Fiji Rugby board comprises of 12 members voted in by the affiliate Unions.

There are 50 administrative staff across Operations, Commercial, Finance, HR & Administration, Development and High Performance as well as the technical support staff and management for our teams, regional development programmes and academy.