Nauru rugby

Fijian Drua head of commercial and spokesperson Shane Hussein said the players were en-route to Nauru and spent a short time at their facility.

Hussein said the visit was facilitated by the Oceania Rugby Union.

“They were impressed with our facility,” he said.

“The boys visited our gymnasium. We were proud to host them and they were really happy with the professional set-up.”

According to the Nauru Rugby Union Facebook page, the players were greeted by the Fijian Drua head of athletic performance strength and conditioning manager Naca Cawanibuka.

Head Coach, Dominic Tabuna says they will be having a meeting on Monday 11 January to discuss and settle dates for competitions they will be organising for 2021.

Nauru ended their local rugby season last year with the Digicel 7s Championship, where Kaiviti Power won the tournament.

The team claimed 30 points to add to their overall tally of 111. This earned them 141 points in total edging Red Warriors who had 140 points in total to finish at second place.

The Nauru rugby side made their international debut at the Oceania 7s in 2019. 

The Dagan Kaierua-coached side flew out of Nauru today (Tuesday) to spend a week in Nadi with the Yamacia 7s side. 

Nauru Rugby Union took to social media to express gratitude to Yamacia Rugby Club founders and brothers, David and Alfred Dakuitoga for opening their arms to help the Nauru national team.

 Prior to departure, the team had a friendly scrimmage session with Fijian Expats in Nauru.

 Head Coach Kaierua was grateful to Fijian expats for availing themselves to have a run with his players.

The Island rugby union have set up plans to start building youths in the contact game of rugby in order to build a wider base of local player selection.

Nauru has its own Men and Women’s 7s team that competes annually at the Oceania tournament, which is the major qualification stage to the HSBC series or to the world cup, Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

In a recent press release, the team said that they have set a revised plan made for their 15’s team, which will be an annual even that sees a pathway from a tier 3 level to move up to playing at tier 2 level.

“The boys did well and I know we have learnt a lot of things from the tournament. We still need more exposure and game time and we hope to be given more opportunities in other tournaments,” Tabuna said.

Nauru made its international debut with an 89-5 loss to hosts Papua New Guinea in the Oceania Championships last weekend, then followed up with a 61-7 reversal against the Solomon Islands.

This will be the team’s first ever-international Rugby XVs Test Match.

The Dominic Tabuna-coached side will be led by Captain, Ivorab Damon Adeang and the Vice-Captain is Kris Menke.

The game kicks off at 3.30pm (local time) at the PNG National Football Stadium.

The team’s line-up:

The team is making its international debut at the tournament at PNG Football Stadium in Port Moresby.

Head Coach, Dominic Tabuna said they had a tough selection process for the tournament.

“Earlier this year our XV Rugby Season was played with eventual winners Meneng Crusaders winning the competition. Players were selected based on criteria stipulated by the NRU, over 40 players were selected and cut down to the final 26 players.”

Team Manager and Coach, Dominic Tabuna says they are grateful to be given the opportunity to field a team.

“It means a lot for the growing support of rugby on island, making the debut for the National Team in this tournament is a result of years’ worth of work for the Nauru Rugby Union and is a big step forward for the development of the sport on island.”

Tabuna also says the dream of every young man in wanting to become rugby starts has inspired him to form a team for the competition.

The session is for U12, U9 & U6 Boys & Girls - all are welcome to come and join in.

No previous experience is needed.
These sessions are about introducing rugby to the children and for them to simply run around, be active and have fun.

We have been running these introductory sessions over the last 2 months at Linkbelt Oval and tomorrow will be the last of this type of session.

The team has just competed in the recent Oceania Sevens and Nauru Rugby has just become member of the IRB – international Rugby Board.

Speaking at the announcement, Ben Kealy Chief Executive of Digicel Nauru said: “he was delighted to be sponsoring the Nauru Rugby.

Rugby has been a major part of my life back in Ireland with Bective Rangers Rugby Club and I am was delighted to be able to support Rugby in Nauru and bring with that many my years of experience from the Northern Hemisphere.”