Academy Draft Combine underway to select players for the Drua Academy

The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua is currently having it’s Academy Draft Combine.

The two-day Combine will see players from across the four zones competing for thirty spots.

The Super Rugby Pacific franchise will scout Under-16 boys this year and will increase participation from Under 14 to 19 next year.

Earlier this year, Drua CEO Mark Evans revealed on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan that they will be starting a Drua Academy Program where they will contract players as young as 15 to 16 years old.

Evans said they were going to put more resources into this program to prevent young players going overseas.

He says once they get these players into the program, then a percentage of them will go into the Drua development.

The Drua CEO says they will still recruit players from the Skipper Cup and the under-20s competition, but they have to get better at identifying the best talents earlier.