{"id":407826,"date":"2026-01-12T07:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T07:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/407826\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T07:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T07:21:08","slug":"paris-olympian-joji-nasova-headlines-drua-squad-for-coral-coast-7s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/407826\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympian Joji Nasova headlines Drua squad for Coral Coast 7s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2024\/25 HSBC SVNS Series Dream Team member Joji Nasova<\/a> has been named in the Fijian Drua<\/a> squad for this week\u2019s Coral Coast 7s in Sigatoka. The Drua have unveiled a strong roster for the tournament, which includes five Flying Fijians and five Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> players.<\/p>\n

Nasova finished the 2024\/25 SVNS Series as the equal-top try-scorer with 26, and was rewarded with a place in the Dream Team. The 25-year-old was the only Fijians selected in the side, with Argentina\u2019s Luciano Gonzalez<\/a> rewarded with Player of the Year honours.<\/p>\n

The Drua announced in May 2025 that Nasova had penned a two-year deal with the Super Rugby Pacific outfit. Nasova is a Paris Olympian who has gone on to represent the Flying Fijians in the Test arena, recently starting on the wing in a 41-33 win over Spain<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n

Nasova will share co-captaincy duties with Elia Canakaivata<\/a>, with the pair headlining a formidable squad that boasts skill and explosiveness. Super Rugby regulars Ilaisa Droasese<\/a>, Isikeli Rabitu and Philip Baselala have also been selected.<\/p>\n

Drua 7s kick off their campaign against British Army 7s at 11:40am on Thursday, before taking on the Yaro Chiefs<\/a> later on day one. The hometown favourites face Japan<\/a> SDS in the third round before the finals gets underway.<\/p>\n

The teams competing include a Fijian Barbarians<\/a> outfit, a New Zealand<\/a> Development 7s side, an Australian Select 7s and McDonald\u2019s Mike Friday\u2019s Select 7s. There are youth and women competitions as well.<\/p>\n

The USA<\/a> Men\u2019s Sevens are another quality side taking to the field. They will face the Chennai Bulls<\/a> Select from India, Mike Friday\u2019s side, and Dominion Brothers before the playoffs. It\u2019s an important event for the USA as they continue to prepare for SVNS 2 next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking for players to rise and consistently impact the game positively, respond to adversity, hold our standards, and trust what we have built on the offseason and continue to build upon it,\u201d coach Zack Test said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking for consistent, repeatable, positive impact on the game overall \u2013 not flashes. We want to see players making good decisions, impacting moments, and influencing play, whether they\u2019re directly involved or supporting.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew opposition will challenge us in different ways, and will test how quickly we respond: our body language, our communication, and our ability to reset and stay connected to the next action. We want to see that our standards travel. Regardless of venue, opponent, or circumstance, the expectations around effort, detail, and behaviour don\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2024\/25 HSBC SVNS Series Dream Team member Joji Nasova has been named in the Fijian Drua squad for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-407826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}