The Swire Shipping Fijian Drua will treat Friday night’s Round 14 Super Rugby Pacific clash at Suva’s HFC Bank Stadium as a must-win, coach Glen Jackson said, as the island crowd prepares for a showdown that could decide Fiji’s only professional franchise’s playoff fate. The Drua sit ninth on the ladder, one spot behind the NSW Waratahs, and Jackson has framed the final rounds as a “three-test series” against Australian opposition — a short, clear run-in where the home match takes on outsized importance for both teams.
“We’ve refreshed,” Jackson told the Fiji Times this week. “I think it was a genuinely hard eight weeks of footy in between. So now it’s a three-test series, really. Got three Australian teams. I don’t want to put too much pressure on the players. Just go out and enjoy themselves and play what’s natural for them.” He urged the players to play with the club’s hallmark physicality: protect possession, hit hard and “send the ball wide.”
The stakes are not only sporting. HFC Bank Stadium has become one of the competition’s most intimidating venues in recent seasons, and a home win would not only keep Drua finals hopes alive but also deliver a shot in the arm for local businesses that benefit from matchday crowds — hospitality, transport and vendors who rely on Super Rugby fixtures for income. The Waratahs go into the match with historical advantage — seven wins from nine meetings since the Drua entered Super Rugby in 2022 — and with a convincing 36-13 victory over the Drua earlier this season in Sydney.
Adding personal drama to the fixture, NSW Waratahs prop Apolosi Ranawai will return to play in Fiji for the first time since 2018. Ranawai said the match will be a “full circle” moment, with family and friends expected in the stands at HFC Bank Stadium. “It’s a big full circle for me to come back home… it’s been like eight years now, so I’m really excited,” he told FBC News. On the field, Ranawai acknowledged a physical battle awaits but stressed the Waratahs’ focus on their own preparation.
A record year for yachts, and for businesses ashore
While rugby dominates weekend conversation in Suva, figures released this week confirm yachting and superyacht tourism are quietly becoming a more important part of Fiji’s visitor economy. The Fiji International Yachting Visitors Survey shows the sector contributed a record $57.4 million to the national economy in 2025 — the strongest performance in 16 years. Direct yachting expenditure reached $51.9 million, up 14 percent on 2024, and arrivals of high-end vessels rose to a 2025 tally of 62 superyachts.
Port Denarau Marina chief executive Cynthia Rasch, who also chairs the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association’s Yachting and Maritime Subcommittee, said the benefits spread far beyond marinas. “These vessels support marinas, fuel suppliers, transport providers, local markets, provisioning businesses, restaurants, hotels, domestic aviation, marine trades and outer island communities,” she told the Fiji Times. The increase brings the sector about 23 percent above pre-pandemic 2019 levels and could help diversify tourism earnings as Fiji continues to rebuild its visitor economy.
Talk of jobs and services also surfaced as Outsource Fiji led a delegation to the Customer Contact Symposium at Rydges Resort Hunter Valley this week. Executive Director Josefa Wivou and senior representatives met industry leaders, contact centre operators and technology providers as part of a targeted push to position Fiji as a competitive outsourcing destination for Australian and New Zealand clients. The delegation pitched Fiji’s service quality, skilled talent pool and trusted partnerships as selling points in a sector that could create office-based work and export services while extending ties with regional markets.
Local industry, large and small
Onshore industries from forestry to smallholder farming were also in the news. Fiji Hardwood Corporation Ltd (FHCL) said it is moving to obtain forest and timber certifications for locally grown mahogany to unlock premium export markets. FHCL manages a 75,000-hectare lease estate across Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, of which about 41,000 hectares contain mature standing mahogany estimated at 5.2 million cubic metres. Current production averages around 40,000 cubic metres a year; management plans aim to raise harvests to 80,000 cubic metres within three years, FHCL chief executive Semi Dranibaka told the Fiji Times.
At the grassroots, Rotuma’s backyard farmers used this year’s Rotuma Day to promote food security and boost small-scale income through yam and dalo cultivation. Twenty-one farmers, including two women participants, entered the island’s annual competition, organisers said. “Backyard farming proves that even families with small pieces of land can contribute to food production,” Rotuma Backyard Farmers chairman Francis Sioni told FBC News, which noted farmers travelled from Pacific Harbour, Suva, Tavua and Vatukoula to take part.
Education and opportunity: two personal stories
Two human-scale stories emerging this week illustrate how education and migration continue to shape Fijian lives. Emosi Jimson Gavin Mara, 29, from Nawaisomo, Naitasiri, walked at the Fiji National University graduation after completing a Certificate IV in Electrical Engineering and finishing his apprenticeship as an electric fitter mechanic with Electricity Fiji Ltd. Mara’s path to the stage was winding: security guard at FNU campuses, baggage handler in Nadi, washing cars and selling food parcels during COVID-19 to keep studying. “I was studying maths and physics at USP, and my first job was as a security guard with FNU so I could pay my fees,” he told the Fiji Times.
Abroad, Fiji-born Simita Kumar has made political history in Scotland. Elected on May 7 to represent Edinburgh South Western for the Scottish National Party, Kumar secured 11,727 votes and becomes, it is believed, the first Fiji-born person sworn into any parliament in the United Kingdom. Kumar, 38, moved to Glasgow with her family in 2005 after schooling in Suva, and her career includes work with NHS Lothian, Public Health Scotland and children’s charities. She became a City of Edinburgh councillor in 2022 and the first person of colour to lead a political party group in the city.
Sport beyond Super Rugby
Rugby’s domestic scene is also gearing up. Rewa Rugby Union has begun preparations for the Vanua Championship, backed by FMF Foods, seeking promotion into an expanded 12-team Skipper Cup. Union officials said the campaign is intended to rebuild rugby foundations in the province and focus on discipline and mastering fundamentals.
Labasa College continued to punch above its weight in school sport, the school’s four teams — girls’ and boys’ Under-17 and Under-19 — made strong showings at the national Secondary Schools Futsal Competition. Under coach Roneel Avnith Ram, both girls’ teams went unbeaten in their pools and the boys’ sides also advanced after tight finishes.
A question for the world stage
As Fiji watches local politics and sport, the international calendar holds a moment that could affect the country’s climate diplomacy. On May 20, the United Nations General Assembly will vote on a political resolution that would welcome last year’s International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate justice. The opinion, requested by 132 states in 2023, found that countries have legal responsibilities to cut greenhouse gas emissions and tackle fossil fuels. Vanuatu is leading the push at the UN, and its climate minister Ralph Regenvanu has been seeking broad support for the resolution ahead of the vote, Pacific Islands News Association reported.
Domestic debate over a major infrastructure proposal also saw a turn this week when Next Generation Fiji (TNG) welcomed a clarification from Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water that Australia has no involvement in the proposed $1.4 billion Vuda waste-to-energy project at Naikorokoro Point, Saweni, Lautoka. TNG founder Rob Cromb said the clarification confirmed the project is a privately led proposal to be assessed solely under Fiji’s regulatory and environmental approvals.
What’s next
The Drua’s encounter with the Waratahs at HFC Bank Stadium tomorrow will be the clearest near-term test for fans and the franchise. A week later, on May 20, member states at the UN will vote on whether to adopt the ICJ opinion into a political resolution — a development Pacific diplomats have argued could translate judicial findings into policy action. Between sport, tourism and industry, the stories converge this week on how Fiji’s local contests and international engagements translate into jobs, income and political representation at home and abroad.