Fiji will host three of their six Tier One Tests next year.

Fiji Rugby Union board chairman John Sanday revealed this following the Annual General Meeting (AGM) last Saturday at the Novotel Suva Lami Bay.

He said the FRU reps will head to the Northern Hemisphere in September to also discuss the possibility of having shares from the gate takings at their away matches.

“We’ve got Scotland, England and Wales as our home games,” Sanday said.

“The away games are Ireland, I think and other Northern Hemisphere teams; that’s something we’re looking forward to.

“We will be negotiating with these unions in terms of the gate split and how we can better and maximise our revenue from there.

“We’re talking about British pounds, the more we can get the better returns we can generate for Fiji Rugby and we can invest it back into some of these developments,” he added.

He indicated the AGM was a success with healthy and constructive discussions to develop and grow the sport moving forward.

Despite having about two hours of debate on the audited 2024 accounts , Sanday said it was accepted at the AGM.

FRU made a profit of $105, 962 for the 2024 financial year.

“It’s a small profit from a revenue of $29m,” he said.

“We’re looking for a better year in 2025 to build on the work that the trustees and the previous administration have been doing, it was an encouraging meeting.”

The AGM also saw the appointment of former Fijiana captain Lailanie Burnes who replaced Laijipa Naulivou on the board.

The chairman said Burnes was not a stranger to rugby and comes in a with a wealth of experience in rugby and marketing.

Sanday added major issues raised by the unions included the marketing and funding of local competitions which is the Skipper and Vodafone Vanua Cup, ANZ Marama and Royal Tea Ranadi competitions.

“We need to put in more effort to drum up the marketing of it so that the public can be encouraged and be excited to come and watch so that the income and the revenues are generated goes back to the unions. That is an area we’ve accepted and will want to put more resources and more effort into it.

“I think you’ll start to see from next week on some of the changes in that. I thank the member unions for raising that because, you know, sometimes we get to busy on some of the finer things and we lose sight of some of the more important things. But that’s the whole purpose of coming together, and sharing and telling us what we should do better, how we can do better and we are very thankful for that.”

He added other things discussed included building more high performance centres, a proposed FRU stadium and the rugby symposium at the end of next month.

Feedback: sereana.salalo@fijisun.com.fj