RUGBY is not just about winning, mauls, rucks and tries, off the field it has influenced the lives of many including budding Flying Fijians.
Welcome Asivurusi Traill. He is a student of Suva Grammar School in Suva, and just like his surname, he is on the trail of becoming a future Fijian rugby star.
It’s all he dreams about nowadays together with attaining educational success at one of the best schools in the land.
And it is because he wants fulfil the wish of his best friend – his father who died before the semi-finals of the recent Powerade Super Deans Rugby Championship Traill, on Saturday, was named as a non-travelling reserve in the Fiji under-16 squad to travel to Australia next week for the 2018 Junior Rugby Championship.
“I am happy to have come this far because the only competitive sport I played before was soccer and as a goalkeeper,” Traill said. Rugby moulds winners, and for Traill, experience from football is carving success for him.
“I have to fulfil my father’s last words to me to do my best and play hard to represent Fiji.
Nothing is hard if you put your heart into it.” Today, months after his mentor left him as an orphan, Traill has found comfort, trust and a shoulder to reach out to through his best school friend, Benjamin Marc-Andre . This is the first year they played rugby after switching from Suva Muslim College to SGS.
“We played in primary school and I was the goalkeeper because of my size and Benjamin was the fullback, probably because he can kick very far,” Traill said. At SGS, the mates paired in the front row with Benjamin as a loose-head prop.
” It was hard at first because at SGS we had to make sure that our notes were up to date and we had no discipline issues to play every week.,” Marc-Andre said.
“We had to balance school and training because that was the condition placed by our principal.” Marc-Andre is in the national team with cousin Rusiate Lepaiono who attends Queen Victoria School.
Lepaiono who plays openside flanker is also playing competitive rugby for the first time having attended Labasa College last year.
“Back in Labasa I didn’t play any sport, but I was craving to play rugby. I guess I made the right choice in switching school and my dreams of becoming a professional rugby player has just begun,” he said.
Coach Masi Saqanavere was happy with the players he had selected and thanked the parents for their support towards their child’s welfare for the past one month.
“We had to work within the limited number of players that was given to us which was 26 and I am grateful that for the past one month the players have shown great improvement and we had selected more forwards then the backs,” he said.
“We had gone for the forwards especially players who can play utility position. “For that one month the execution of the game structure we never judged them on their performance during the Deans Trophy competition but how they performed during training.”
The three are amongst the 26 players selected to march into camp on Tuesday, September 18, in Suva for a four-day camp before they will fly out on Friday the 28th of September 28.
