Fiji may have sacrificed significant home ground advantage, but inclusion in next year's Nations Championship will be “transformational” for the Pacific island rugby nation.
The FIJI Water Flying Fijians were one of 12 countries invited to take part in the new biennial tournament, held across both hemispheres.
They will join Japan, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Argentina from the south, while the northern teams are Six Nations sides England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales.
Fiji is the only country that won’t play at home, with the country's major rugby stadium in Suva not meeting competition requirements.
Instead, their “home” games against Wales, England and Scotland are set to be played in the UK.
The Fijians hosted and defeated Scotland in a Test match in July, with the visitors struggling in the tropical heat in front of a raucous full house of around 12,000.
But demands from the Nations Championship require a 25,000-seat stadium with almost half of that under cover, while the viability of hosting, including ticket sales and corporate support, was factored in.
Fiji Rugby Chairman John Sanday told AAP that while playing at home would have been ideal, they were willing to cede to competition requirements with the games bringing in a substantial windfall.
He says whilst they were disappointed that they would not be able to host the game here, the economic benefits that would accrue from their home games being hosted in the UK and elsewhere outweighed every emotion that accompanied the need or the thought to have it hosted here.
Sanday says it’s actually a transformational opportunity for them, and never before in their history would they be able to have this kind of revenue, which they can then invest back into the facilities and high performance.
He adds they are just happy that they are part of the Nations Championship because it is a good runway for their preparations for the Rugby World Cup in Australia 2027, but also it offers them a huge opportunity.
With many of their stars based in the UK and France, Sanday says northern hemisphere matches would limit the travel time for those players as opposed to preparing and playing in Fiji.
Sanday says the money would be used to improve training facilities at HFC Bank Stadium, where their Super Rugby Pacific side, the Fijian Drua, also train and play.
The long-term plan is that the ground will be redeveloped to regularly host Test matches by 2030.
The Nations Championship will be launched in July 2026.
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