Former Bati captain Petero Civoniceva says there is still a lot of work to do before a Fijian rugby league team will be ready to run out onto the field in the New South Wales Cup.
The Fiji Bid Team, led by Civoniceva & Greg Browne, has secured the rights to enter a based team in the State competition from 2016.
The move was endorsed by the New South Wales Rugby League Board, along with the Fiji National Rugby League and the Fiji Sports Council.
Petero Civoniceva says the opportunity to provide a more direct pathway for Fijian players into the NRL is exciting for the growth of the game but says there's plenty to get on with before that becomes a reality.
"I'm sure that that time-frame will go really quickly so first matters at hand is obviously to assemble a squad of players and we've got ideas of doing that sooner rather than later so that we can start to begin our preparation for getting our local players up to speed to the New South Wales Rugby League Cup standard and of course everything else will follow from that".
The team will play their matches at Suva's National ANZ Stadium and Petero Civoniceva says the bid team is also busy scouting for a permanent training venue.
Fiji's Petero Civoniceva Photo: PHOTOSPORT
