Lautoka’s Churchill Park will host five of the seven Fijian Drua home matches for the 2024 Shop N Save Super Rugby Pacific season.
The club confirmed in a stamen yesterday Suva’s HFC Bank Stadium will host the other two.
The venues have been finalised after extensive discussions with venue owners and considering a number of important factors.
Key among them is the unavailability of the stadium in Suva until April 2024 due to upgrade of the athletic tracks.
“Lautoka will host three Swire Shipping Drua matches in March, as the home side welcomes back defending champions the Crusaders (March 9) and first-time visitors to Fiji – NSW Waratahs (March 23) and Western Force (March 30).
The matches against the Waratahs and the Force will be double headers, with the women’s teams also clashing as part of the Super W competition.
The Drua then take on the Hurricanes on a Friday night blockbuster in Suva ( April 19) and return to Lautoka the following week to take on Moana Pasifika in the battle of the Pacific (April 27).
At the business end of competition, the Fijians host the Queensland Reds in Suva (May 18) and then return to Lautoka for the final regular season match against the Melbourne Rebels (June 1).
“We are delighted to finally share with our fans our 2024 season venues with five matches in Lautoka and two in Suva. We would of course have liked to have more than two matches in Suva for our fans in the Central Division, but the stadium is simply not available,” Fijian Drua CEO Mark Evans said.
“We understand they may be disappointed at this development and are working to make it easier for them to attend matches in the West.
“We are in active discussions with bus companies to create travel and match ticket packages with the Drua, so fans from Suva, Naitasiri, Tailevu, Lami and Pacific Harbour can make it a day trip to Lautoka.
“Three of the matches will kick off at 1pm which helps fans to make the trip to watch their Drua take on some of the world’s most exciting players right here in Fiji.”
The Drua kick off its 2024 Shop N Save Super Rugby Pacific on February 24 against Blues in Auckland.
