This won’t be an easy Women’s Rugby World Cup for the Fijiana 15s side.
Drawn in Pool B, the national women’s side finds itself Pooled with teams ranked in the top 10.
Fiji is pooled with Canada, Scotland and Wales.
Canada is ranked second in the World Rugby rankings, Scotland at 8th and Wales at 9th place.
The second-ranked Canada team which defeated the Black Ferns in 2024 during the Pacific Four, is first up for the Fijiana.
“We continue with our growth as a team I think we’ve shown fantastic growth over the last 2-3 months with a fixture against USA in Washington which is great for us, but we start against Canada which is an awesome challenge for us, and we want to put a performance on the field and who knows what will happen if we perform right.
“We can’t wait for it, it’s a great challenge for us, Canada obviously number two in the world at the moment, fantastic athletic rugby players but we are really looking forward to it, so what a way to start,” Fijiana head coach Ioan Cunningham stated.
World ranking calculations show that if Fiji does the unthinkable of defeating Canada, the side could reach a new high of 13th place.
This will be easier said than done with the Canadians on their fair share of preparation.
“I would say they’re probably very similar to us in that it’s hard to know what they’re going to do, which can make it exciting or terrifying, depending on how you look at it.
“We’re just kind of prepared for whatever they’re going to throw at us, and we’re going to fight hard. We know they’re going to come with physicality, speed, some shifty footwork so we’re going to try and shut them down,” Canada veteran player Tyson Beukeboom said.
Fijiana will take on Canada on Sunday at 4.30am.
