Drua to start Academy Program this year to recruit players as young as 15-16 years old

Swire Shipping Fijian Drua CEO Mark Evans has revealed that they will be starting a Drua Academy Program where they will contract players as young as 15 to 16 years old.

While speaking during fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan, Evans said they are going to put more resources into this program to prevent young players going overseas.

Evans says they want these young players playing for their respective schools in the Vodafone Super Deans Competition but they don’t want these players just sitting there just to get picked up, so they have to get better talent IDs and put them into the Drua Academy program.

He says once they get these players into the program, then a percentage of them go into the Drua development.

Evans says they will still recruit players from the Skipper Cup and the under 20s competition, but they have to get better at identifying the best talent earlier.

He says they are working on trying not to use some of their senior players too early, hoping that some of them would come back if they tend to leave for overseas contracts so that they can start with the Drua and end with the Drua.

He adds the HPU has also done a great job on the Under 20s but it tends to be recruiting players between the age of 17 to 19 years old.

Evans says Drua players like Selestino Ravutaumada and Junior Ratuva went overseas at the age of 15 and 16 years old respectively and now they have come back because things did not work out well for them one way or the other.

Evans says they will be looking to get this Drua Academy program up and running sometime between August to September this year.

You can watch the full Straight Talk interview with Evans and Drua Manager Commercial and Marketing, Shane Hussein on our website, fijivillage. Meanwhile, the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua will take on the Chiefs at 6.30pm this Saturday in Waikato in round 4 of the Shop N Save Super Rugby Pacific. In other matches this weekend, the Crusaders will host the Hurricanes at 6.05pm tomorrow, the Rebels will play the Reds at 8.35pm tomorrow, Western Force will take on Moana Pasifika at 11pm, the Highlanders will host the Brumbies at 3.35pm Saturday and the Waratahs will play the Blues at 8.35pm Saturday.