Fiji

Despite Fiji retaining the Pacific Nations Cup this month in a four team tournament that included Tonga, Samoa and Georgia, the competition only featured two rounds.

The Flying Fijians beat Samoa 22-24 and Georgia 37-15 but did not meet Tonga. The 'Ikale Tahi lost to Georgia 15-16 but overcame Samoa 28-18.

Tonga coach Toutai Kefu said the unofficial Pacific crown was up for for grabs.

"I think whoever wins this game can call themselves the kings of the Pacific," Kefu said.

Jordan Lay, Seilala Lam and Viliamu Afatia form a brand new front row combination, with Logovii Mulipola out injured, while Joe Tekori joins captain Chris Vui in the second row.

TJ Ioane starts on the openside flank with Jack Lam shifting to number eight.

Dwayne Polataivao gets the nod at halfback, with Alofa Alofa replacing the injured Rey Lee-Lo at centre, in his first test appearance for three years, while veteran Paul Perez comes onto the right wing.

The 'Ikale Tahi have brought in four new faces with one positional change to the run-on team.

A high-profile trip to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga in October is being discussed at the highest level and aides are promising that the second half of this year will be ‘incredibly busy’ with official visits.

The couple have already announced that they are delaying their honeymoon to return to work the week after their nuptials.

It is anticipated that Miss Markle – now the Duchess of Sussex – will join the Queen at the Chelsea Flower Show for the first time and make an appearance at one of her annual garden parties in the coming weeks.

The NDMO Director Anare Leweniqila says 804 houses have been damaged, 201 of which were fully destroyed.

Mr Leweniqila said 104 evacuation centers remain active with 803 evacuees.

He said the relief and recovery phase continued in Kadavu with assessment teams to work through the 75 villages in the area by the end of the week.

FBC news reported the collective cost of damage for the Western and Northern Divisions was expected to be finalised by Friday.

Prime minister Frank Bainimarama has announced a new package for people hard hit by recent back to back cyclones and flooding.

He announced the Cyclone Assistance Relief Effort for Fiji package or CARE for Fiji before flying out last night for London.

Mr Bainimarama is on his way to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.

Prime Minister Bainimarama said people earning less than FJ$50,000 dollars a year and whose homes were totally destroyed or suffering severe damage qualify for the funds.

One of the owners of the Matavai Resort on Kadavu Luke Kerchevale says the storm seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Quite a large boat is capsized because we couldn't get it to shelter soon enough. We've had a number of huge mango trees come down on a lot of our buildings," said Luke Kerchevale.

The Australian who along with co-owner Mark hails from Canberra and Sydney said thankfully all of their staff and guests were safe but he said they were really worried for people in the nearby villages.

The Fiji Met Service said the cyclone remains a category three storm packing winds of 130 kilometres per hour, gusting up to 185.

However, Keni was forecast to weaken drastically as it continued to move southeast into cooler waters.

The Met Service said within the next 18 hours the system could cease to be a cyclone.

Cyclone Keni wreaked havoc as it passed the southern islands of Fiji overnight bringing destructive winds and downpours causing flooding.

Cyclone Keni is Category 3 storm and is expected to be closest to the islands from midday today.

The Fiji weather office is expecting Keni to pass south of Nadi before making landfall over the southern island of Kadavu.

People are being told to expect destructive winds of up to 170 kilometres an hour.

The government says they need to prepare a three day family disaster kit, strengthen their homes, be ready for power cuts and evacuate if need be.

It's the second cyclone to hit Fiji in just over a week after Cyclone Josie left six people dead over Easter.

It comes just over a year after the INF announced that Fiji had won the right to host the second staging of the event.

The agreement was signed by Netball Fiji President Wainikiti Bogidrau and INF counterpart Molly Rhone during the Commonwealth Games here.

Among those present at the signing ceremony were Fiji’s Minister for Youth and Sports Laisenia Tuitubou and Fiji Sports Commission executive chair Peter Mazey.

Alison Burchell, acting permanent secretary for the Ministry of Youth and Sports, was also present.

In a repeat of last month's final in Vancouver, Fiji ran in four tries to move within just three points of series leaders South Africa in the overall standings and take their third tournament win of the 2018 world series.  
 
Two yellow cards in the first half for Kenya's Collins Injera and Willy Ambaka allowed the Pacific islanders to take a 17-0 lead at half-time. Despite tries from Kenya's Billy Odhiambo and Oscar Ouma in the second half, Fiji were uncatchable and cemented their reputation in Hong Kong as the team to beat.