Northland is serious about its intentions to return to Super Premier ranks next season after all of their teams qualified for the semi-final of the Vanua Championship this weekend.
At Ratu Cakobau Park on Friday, its women’s outfit will take on Macuata at 11am, the Under-19s take on Ovalau at 1pm and the main team goes head-to-head with Ba at 3pm. Delayed coverage of the 3pm match will be aired at 8pm Monday, 19 October and shown simultaneously via MaiTV’s Facebook page. Northland defeated Macuata 27-16 in one of the quarter-final matches two weeks ago.
On Saturday, at Garvey Park in Tavua, similar to Northland, Nanukuloa looks like the team to beat with all of their three teams making the semi-final cut as well. Its women’s team on takes on their Serua counterparts, the U19s take on Ba and in the main competition, face Rewa.
Fiji Rugby Operations Manager Sale Sorovaki said they would be at the games to identify talents and areas that need to be strengthened.
“There is so much talent that has been unearthed during the last 7 weeks of the Vanua Competition,” Sorovaki said. “The competition is designed to give our local players some game time and help them to achieve their rugby goals. This environment allows them the opportunity to do that.”
Meanwhile, also resuming this weekend is the Skipper Cup competition with two round 12 games. At 3pm Saturday, Namosi will host Yasawa at the ANZ Stadium and Nadi face Lautoka at Prince Charles Park. Suva lead both the Women and Super Premier standings at 37 and 39 points respectively. Nadroga lead the Under-19 grade.