A handful of players are expected to be recruited by the Melbourne Storm next month when the Fiji National Rugby League Junior Bati Academy takes on Caloundra State High School.
This was confirmed by Fiji Bati head coach and academy founder Wise Kativerata, who said both the East and West academies would be facing the state high school.
“Caloundra State High School has been producing players for the Storm for a very long time, and they have a lot of development players in the school.
“So, when they come to play like this in Fiji, it means that they are looking to recruit a few players from here,” he said.
“So, we are expecting some of our boys to be recruited by the beginning of next month.”
He said the West Academy would be playing the visitors before the East Academy. Kativerata said the academies had been undergoing training for the past four weeks, and the boys were excited to go out against a dominant school such as Caloundra State High School.
“The boys have been training for four weeks now, and they are looking good, and they are excited to play Caloundra State High School.
“We have been working on our structure, where we want all the players to understand this particular aspect of the game.”
He said a squad would be selected to take on Tonga on November 11.
“We will be selecting a squad, after both our teams have played to face Tonga in November.”
Kativerata said the two matches would be vital for the development of the teams, where they would be able to gauge their performance after playing a rugby league dominate school.
“This match will be very good for the academy because it will be a test for the players, so they can look back and see if they have improved, and to expose our weakness for development.”
