The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua’s investment in its player development programme continues to pay off, with four players in the 2026 main squad now coming through the club’s system.
Drua CEO Mark Evans said the club has built a strong pathway for local players in just three years.
“Out of 39 players, 10 have come from development. Now, we’ve only had a development squad for three years, so that’s a decent output.
“It’s always interesting when you talk to the young men in development.
“It’s very important for the ones who are there now, and we’ve got really quite a new group just starting.
“Not many in the development squad this year were there last year, obviously, because you can stand two years, three years in development. So Baselala (Philip Baselala), for example, he was three years in development before he got promoted.
“Some guys are there for a couple of months, like Vocevoce (Mesake Vocevoce) just got accelerated,” Evans said.
Evans said the club’s scouting covers a wide range from Skipper Cup competitions to 7s programmes and overseas-based Fijians.
“We always look to get the best Fijian heritage players that we possibly can from a range of sources whether they’re in our age group system, whether they’re in our development system, whether they’re in our main squad or whether they’re in the Team 23 that runs out on a weekend.”
