More than 120 players took part in the Touch Federation Fiji trials yesterday to select a team to the Youth World Cup in Australia in May.
Players attended the trials at Buckhurst Park in Laucala Bay, Suva for places in the men’s and women’s under-18 and under-20 teams.
Women’s manager Koila Kabu said it was a good turnout with players well prepared.
“Despite being a minor sport, we’ve seen the interest from these young players at the ages of 15 and above,” she said.
“Since May is just around the corner, we have a very tight schedule and the standard set by the officials is on a level of competition played in Australia.
“The players that we will choose have to meet this criteria.
“Basically we are looking to take a team of 16 players in each team.
“We’ve reached to corporate businesses; some donors who can help finance this tour.”
She said this was the first time an opportunity had come by for the sport in Fiji to send a youth team to an overseas event.
“It has always been the elite teams that have taken part where we won a gold medal in our first Pacific Games that we attended; those were the national elite players.
“Now we’ve gone down to the junior level, we will expose young and raw talents.
“The challenges that we face is being a minor sport, you get sidelined in terms of funding where sponsors are quite hesitant to support.
“We are working towards engaging stakeholders, donors and having a new government in place to willingly engage with the sport.
“The interest is here, having to represent the country at a very young age is itself marketable so that is something that we want to get potential sponsors on.”
Their second trials will be held on January 28.
