“Only God knows what I’ve been through”.
Those were the words of Vuiviawa Naduvalo after receiving his Player of the Final award at the Singapore tournament of HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series on Sunday night.
From a water boy for the Fire Wardens 7s team, the flyer from Semo in Nadroga was asked to try out for the side by coach Akuila Nasi.
His speed caught the attention of former Fiji 7s coach Gareth Baber and he was selected in the training squad to Dubai.
However, he was dropped by interim coach Saiasi Fuli. Nasi said after his axing from the Fiji squad, Naduvalo wanted to leave the sport, but decided otherwise.
His perseverance saw him score 10 tries in Singapore over the weekend to help Fiji win the title. “It’s not all what we saw in Singapore last weekend,” Nasi said while describing Naduvalo’s quick rise in the 7s world arena.
“He has beaten Naduva (Alasio), Habosi (Vinaya) because he has gas to burn the field.
“Naduvalo was just recruited in the National Fire Authority and at first he was just our team’s water boy.
“He was humble. He has the ability to make a name for himself and our coaching team has moulded him to become a better player.”
Nasi said as time went on, Viwa, as he is called by his teammates, joined their training runs and he could sense that the rising star had a lot of talent.
He said the player had footwork, kicking abilities and speed.
“He was a soccer player for Nadroga Arya College in his high school days,” Nasi said.
“He spent a year with Tuva rugby in Nadroga and from there his rugby took off. At training he was just a water boy with hidden capabilities and during warm-ups in our touch rugby games I saw that he can really run.
“He began to gain confidence as he joined the team as a player and because he is a good listener he was quick to adapt.”
Nasi said Naduvalo would be a good asset for Ben Gollings and Viliame Satala. “Naduvalo is our key man in the kick offs,” Nasi said.
“You might see him in the weekend’s game as he was also used by Gollings in retaining the ball at the restart.
“This is the fruits of his hardwork and sacrifices during our training session and also his ‘never say die’ attitude during game time.”
Nasi said Naduvalo had a lot of lessons to learn and one important part he possessed was teamwork as he knew it was the core ingredient to a winning environment.
