The Fijiana 15s team is preparing for the upcoming matches against Scotland and Netherlands in early September before they move on to the WXV3 tournament which is to be held in Dubai later the same month.
Coach Mosese Rauluni said the team has continued its preparation while in camp in Nadi with the aim of topping their pool so they can advance in the competition.
“Overall our aim is to win WXV3 and move up to WXV2, we know it will be a tough match against Scotland who are part of the Six nations and Netherlands who are an up and coming nation. The WXV is a great competition but obviously we want to move up another level and improve our ranking.”
Several members of the High Performance Unit have also joined the camp in Nadi.
“The squad has added a number of Women’s HPU players to the extended squad as we build to these test matches. Scotland won their finished 4th in 6 Nations earlier this year and won WXV2 in 2023, we look forward to testing ourselves against them. Netherlands have qualified for WXV3 and are vying for a RWC place, they will offer a different style of rugby which is critical for our RWC 2025 preparations.”
The 2024 WXV will be the second edition of WXV, a women’s international rugby union group tournament for senior national teams organised by World Rugby. It will take place between 27 September and 13 October 2024. The competition will feature three divisions of six nations each. Participating teams were determined by regional competitions and play-in/play-off matches.
The WXV3 is the third of the grouping of women’s XV teams which includes the Netherlands who qualified after beating Colombia in the relegation play-off match. Madagascar qualified as runners up at the 2024 Rugby Africa Women’s Cup. Fiji and Samoa secured their places in the top two of the Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship and Hong Kong qualified as runners up at the 2024 Asia Rugby Women’s Championship.
All the rounds will take place at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai. Fiji, Madagascar, and the Netherlands will play matches against Hong Kong China, Samoa and Spain.
Photo: HPU squad member Adi Salaseini Railumu with the Fijiana XV team at training at the Sigatoka sand dunes.
PC: Fiji Rugby
