PAGEANTRY and rugby were the order of the day at the Fijian Drua home base in Nadi as contestants of this year’s Miss Pacific Islands Pageant visited the facility ahead of the Drua’s first Super Rugby Pacific match against Moana Pasifika this Saturday.
The seven vying contestants and the reigning queen were received at the base by the club’s general manager rugby Baden Stephenson, its general manager commercial Shane Hussein and its head of sales Josefa Vanuaca.
Reflecting on their visit, reigning Miss Pacific Islands Litara Loma Leilani Ieremia-Allan said the visit to the club allowed them to learn of the Drua’s rich history and the values enshrined within it.
“I appreciated learning about the history and I think navigating our Blue Continent ties us together as Pacific people,” Ieremia-Allan said.
“It talks about resilience, it talks about cultural preservation and also just a reminder to remember.
“We need to remember our stories and allow that to push us forward.”
The reigning Miss Pacific Islands was a former rugby player herself and highlighted her days of playing with the likes of former Fijian Drua Women players such as Jade Coates.
Meanwhile, Fijian Drua general manager commercial Shane Hussein said the team’s dynamic identity in the high-performance scenario of Super Rugby allowed it to create a unique space for itself in showing the world what it could do in rugby as a team from the Pacific embracing its rich cultural heritage.
He provided the Drua’s pre-match war challenge “Na Bole” as an example of this.
The visit by the contestants and Ieremia-Allan was made ahead of the Drua’s first 2026 Super Rugby match against Moana Pasifika at Churchill Park in Lautoka at 3.30pm.
The contestants and the reigning queen will also be present at the match, where they will engage in a meet-and-greet after it before they return to Nadi for the crowning in the evening at the Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa on Denarau Island.
