Drua CEO Mark Evans on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan

Swire Shipping Fijian Drua CEO Mark Evans says they are only taking players with Fijian heritage no further back than two generations, and they have to declare for Fiji.

Evans highlighted this on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan saying they are a talented but pretty inexperienced young team playing in a very tough competition, and the easy way, and they would never do this, would be to relax the Fijian rule.

He said this in reference to Englishman Tom Savage who is not Polynesian, but playing for Moana Pasifika.

The Drua CEO says he has got no problem with that, Moana can run their franchise how they want to run it, but that goes completely against everything they are trying to do.

When asked will there be a time where the Drua is no longer seen as just a feeder team to the Flying Fijians, Evans says probably not, but he hopes that in six years time the Fiji team makes the semi finals of the Rugby World Cup in the United States.

The Drua CEO says while there might not be as many Drua players as the last World Cup, there will be at least 90 percent of former Drua players that will make up that squad.

He says one of the reasons the Drua was set up was to create an opportunity for players to stay on the islands, become professional players and grow and gain experience in a very good competition.

Evans says then some, not all might want to go overseas to France and Japan but after a few years abroad these same players will return home to the Drua bringing their experience and expertise back with them.

The Drua play the Force in their last home game at 3.35pm Saturday at Churchill Park, Lautoka.

In other games, the Hurricanes play the Highlanders at 7.05pm Friday, the Crusaders face the Waratahs at 9.35pm Friday, Moana Pasifika meet the Blues at 7.05pm Saturday while the Brumbies take on the Reds at 9.35pm Saturday.