Fijian star turns down Premiership offer

Fiji halfback Frank Lomani has turned down an offer to join English club Wasps in the Gallagher Premiership.

Lomani told The Fiji Sun that he also said no to the Melbourne Re­bels when the Super Rugby season resumes in February.

Instead, Lomani will focus on preparing for next year’s Rugby World Cup in Ja­pan with Fiji.

It was reported earlier in the month that Wasps were after the 22-year-old after an injury crisis in their halfback stocks.

“The Wasps deal didn’t work out. I just want to come back home and spend time with my family and rest after two years of nonstop rugby,” Lomani told The Fiji Sun.

“My focus now is the 2019 RWC, prepare well and do my family and country proud.

“I have always wanted to make my family proud every time I play, make my hometown proud and at the same time chal­lenge youths that nothing is impossible.”

Lomani isn’t short on confidence when it comes to assessing Fiji’s chances at the showpiece tournament, and feels that if the works is put in the results will come.

“I think we just need more time together. Four days is not enough to beat tier one nations like New Zealand, England and Ireland,” Lomani said.

“A good example was during the Northern Tour where we spent two weeks to beat France.

“Imagine if we prepare for three to four weeks. The boys will be every­where doing what they love and playing Fiji’s style of rugby.

“The number of quality players we have, competing with tier one nations is not a big deal.

“We definitely stand a 100 per cent chance of reaching the cup final of the RWC.”

Lomani has six caps for Fiji and represented the Barbarians when they played Argentina earlier this year. He was also part of the title-winning Fijian Drua side that took out Australia’s National Rugby Championship in 2018.

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