FRU Chief Executive, John O’Connor

Some local national men’s and women’s rugby reps have been approached by agents or agencies which are not recognized by the Fiji Rugby Union.

FRU Chief Executive, John O’Connor says they understand there’s an agent or agency from China currently in the country scouting and recruiting male and female players.

In a statement, O’Connor says the agent or agency is neither registered with Fiji Rugby nor with the Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations as a recruitment agency.

O’Connor says they have a very good relationship with the China Rugby Union and also have a Memorandum of Understanding on areas of collaboration, and they have neither advised the FRU of any planned professional competition and likewise their desire to recruit our players to play in their competition.

The FRU believes there were agents who have been scouting players from the Fun Flavour Super Sevens Series with dubious intent.

It’s believed that some players have been targeted and selected without proper due diligence and are in camp allegedly undergoing quarantine before they fly off to Beijing, China in the coming days.

FRU is pleading with players to seek advice from the High-Performance Unit Coaches Bill Gadolo, Kele Leawere, Iferemi Rawaqa and Sale Sorovaki before making any decision after being approached by agents.

O’Connor says FRU is at the moment currently having a discussion with Korea Rugby Union who have indicated to run a professional rugby competition in Korea.

KRU has indicated that they will be seeking the assistance of FRU to recruit some of our players to participate in such competition.

This is the right approach aacording to O’Connor and when the positions and the numbers of the players are confirmed, they will advise the provincial unions accordingly.