FIJI yesterday unearthed three of her future Flying Fijians after they helped win the 2016 Oceania Rugby under-20 Trophy and qualification into the Junior World Trophy in Uruguay next year.
They are flyhalf John Manu, skipper Eroni Mawi and wing Timoci Tavatavanawai. The Vodafone Fiji U20 beat Tonga 18-13.
Manu scored a try and kicked eight points, Mawi ably led through good judgement and leadership, and Tavatavanawai was outstanding in defence and attack in the rain at the ANZ Stadium, Laucala Bay yesterday.
Coach Salimoni Ravouvou was the first to praise the trio.
“All players played well and the captain led by example,” he said.
“We are happy to have qualified,” pitched in O’Connor, Fiji Rugby Union chief executive officer.
Mawi led like a general from the frontline. As the victory call came, the scars of the battle were evident on his face — bruises.
Like the Bible story of Prophet Moses, who led the Israelites from Egypt captivity, but not to the end in Canaan, Mawi will not be able to lead his team to Uruguay next August because of his age.
“I am honoured to have led this team to allow Fiji to go to the world champs. I will not be there.”
Ravouvou said: “We are very humble to win the game. The hard training and months of preparation were some of the things which made the difference. I told the players to play disciplined rugby in the second half and we won.”
He said the team would continue to train during the Christmas break. Fiji drew first blood with a try to inside centre Filimoni Savou. Manu extended Fiji’s lead when he sliced through the Tonga defence for our second try.
Tonga captain and inside centre Sione Va’eno broke through the Fijian defence to score before half time.
Break: Fiji 12 – 7 Tonga. Rain affected play when it resumed.
It resulted in penalties and Manu and Talesio Oneone kicked two penalties each.
Tonga increased the tempo in the last five minutes. They were denied a five pointer after a forward pass only to be disallowed a try by referee Fa’avae Neru for ball being held up. O’Connor said: “They had a lot of opportunities in the first half, but we became too complacent and the boys also became overconfident which brought us down. If they had focused on their roles, we could have scored few more tries. We’ll take the win.”
