The Fiji Drua boss has slammed Rugby Australia for what he labelled an “inequitable” travel schedule, where the Drua women’s team will arrive 24 hours before their Super Rugby Women’s semi-final on Sunday.
He also suggested it could lead to a “ridiculously compromised” preparation if they make the grand final.
The Fijiana Drua will meet Queensland on Sunday in Brisbane in the first semi-final of the Super Rugby Women (formerly Super W) competition. The Fijiana Drua were added to the RA-run competition in 2022 and have made grand finals in their first three seasons, winning two.
Under tournament regulations, RA pays for a “maximum of three nights” accommodation for Fijiana Drua for away games, but after expecting a “sensible” schedule, where they would arrive in Brisbane on Friday and depart on Monday, the Drua were booked to arrive on Saturday.
The team’s flight back to Fiji is booked for Tuesday, which could mean the Drua – if they make the Super Rugby Women final on Saturday week – left with one training session at home before getting back on a plane to Sydney on the Thursday.
The RA-organised travel plans were impacted by the fact the order of the top four was not settled until the results of the final round. NSW host the other semi-final in Sydney.
Fijian Drua players after winning the Super W competition in 2022.Credit: Getty Images
Fiji Drua chief executive Mark Evans questioned the lack of contingency planning and said he was “perplexed and bewildered” by RA’s refusal to budge and fly the team in on Friday.
“I find it extraordinary. They are claiming budget,” Evans said. “I know times are hard, but they are a multimillion-dollar organisation. Are you seriously telling me that in the circumstances you can’t stretch to one extra night?
“C’mon, this is a final. They said, ‘There is your three nights’. I said, ‘Hold on, you want us to come on the Saturday so we only have 24 hours in the city before we play?’ I am sure it has been done previously, but that’s not how you want to prepare for finals football.
“To hide behind the word maximum is disingenuous to the extreme.
“If we win, our preparation is totally compromised. We would go back to Sydney [on Thursday] and play the Waratahs or the Force, and I doubt they’ll have been on two international flights within five days of the game.
“I don’t think it is equitable.”
Evans’ comments come after the Fiji Drua men’s team recently complained to Super Rugby Pacific about a series of travel mishaps on a trip to New Zealand, which included players jumping in a luggage truck from the airport to a hotel due to a missing bus.
Super Rugby Women’s teams travelling to away fixtures on match eve is not uncommon, and sides have flown to Fiji and Perth the day before a game in the past few years.
RA general manager of women’s rugby Jilly Collins responded in a statement: “The travel arrangements for the Fijian Drua are aligned with the competition guidelines and consistent with the precedents set by all travelling teams in the Super Rugby Women’s competition.
Fiji Drua chief executive Mark Evans is a former CEO of the Melbourne Storm.Credit: Steve Lunam
“Rugby Australia believes that the arrival of the Drua in Brisbane on the morning of the day before the game is sufficient from both a logistics and high-performance perspective.
“There were no available return flights the day after the game and accordingly Rugby Australia has offered to accommodate the team’s additional recovery and preparation needs during their time in Brisbane.”
Evans believes Super Rugby Pacific bosses handled the men’s travel complaint well, and said there are many in Australian and New Zealand rugby who have greatly contributed to the creation – and growth – of the Drua men’s and women’s programs. He paid credit to the work of Collins and now RA head of high-performance Peter Horne, in his former job at World Rugby.
The Drua are also partly funded by the PacificAus Sport partnership, through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which provides $650,000 a year, and the men’s side first played when invited into RA’s third-tier competition, the National Rugby Championship, in 2017.
RA officials are privately dismayed at Evans’ criticism, given the organisation’s support for Fiji over many years.
However, Evans, a former Melbourne Storm chief executive, said the Drua’s international travel burden is not fully appreciated.
The Fijiana Drua have won two of the three grand finals they’ve contested.Credit: Getty
“Rugby Australia say other teams have come the day before. Yes, but they’re coming from Canberra or Brisbane – it is not the same,” Evans said.
“If we win on the weekend, it will be four [Super W] grand finals in a row, so we bring a lot to the competition. We had 11,000 people watching a Super W game last year. It is not as if we are not adding value.
“I just don’t feel there is always enough flexibility. We are not an hour up the road.
“I just think various stakeholders in the competition simply need to be more aware and flexible of the different situation we find ourselves in, largely through geography. We are not Melbourne coming to Sydney, where there are 30 flights a day. If you lose your flight to Nadi on the Monday because it’s too late, we can’t get home.
“It’s called contingency planning. I am perplexed and irritated by it all. But at the end of the day, we will have to go on Saturday, and we will give it our best shot and try to win, and then have a ridiculously compromised preparation [for a gran final].”
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