History will be created next year as Fiji will play in Australia's National Rugby Championship.
Prime Minister and President of the Fiji Rugby Union Voreqe Bainimarama who is currently in Sydney made the announcement with Australian Rugby Union boss Bill Pulver in the last hour.
The plan, first reported last month by Fairfax Media, will see World Rugby fund the team to join the Australian National Rugby Championship from next season.
Bainimarama says he wants to thank World Rugby and especially the Australian Rugby Union for opening the door for the Fiji Rugby Union to field a team in their tournament.
He says it is a huge step forward for Fijian rugby and he knows that every Fijian will share his excitement at this development and the possibilities it opens up for Fiji’s players and for the nation.
Bainimarama says his government had committed about $300,000 in the 2016 National Budget for the Fiji’s participation in the tournament this year, but since that has been pushed back to 2017, he is pleased to reconfirm their funding commitment.
Fiji will be the 9th team in the tournament, which starts from August 2017.
Fiji will be playing four away games in Australia and more importantly, there will be four home games in Fiji.
Watoday.com.au says it is a major coup for the ARU who, along with New Zealand, are often criticised for drawing players from the Pacific Islands but not giving much back in return.
Inviting a team to join a domestic rugby competition on an ongoing basis has the potential to do much more for a country such as Fiji, which has long been at the mercy of the lucrative rugby markets in Europe and closer to home.
The announcement has been some months in the making, after Fiji coach, John McKee approached the ARU's high performance manager Ben Whitaker, to discuss a way to improve Fiji's development pathway.
World Rugby high performance general manager Peter Horne was also closely involved, as the global rugby body is the main source of funding for rugby in the Oceania region.
In a pre‑cursor to the big move, a handful of Fijian players joined the Australian National Rugby Championship this year, including sevens Olympic gold medalist Vatemo Ravouvou and Fiji Warriors star Cyril Reece.
It is also likely that Fiji have aspirations to join Super Rugby, although no firm timeline or proposal is in place for such a plan, with the future structure of Super Rugby yet to be determined.
Meanwhile talks are also expected on hosting of more Super Rugby games in Fiji.
An announcement is expected after the talks.
Bainimarama is currently addressing a trade seminar at Intercontinental Hotel in Sydney.
He will attend the Fiji Day celebrations tomorrow.
