As with many good inventions, the Ba Tikina Championships were born out of necessity.

Back in early May on the grass at Vinod Patel Park, eight club managers sat with newly elected Ba Rugby Union secretary Gaby Kautoga to discuss the playing season.

Ba hadn’t seen any club rugby since 2019, so some scepticism persisted, especially when last year’s competition had been abandoned before it had even begun.

Charging clubs $500 for registration appeared to be an obstacle in some villages where employment was low. And travelling more than an hour to reach the grounds formed another barrier to entry for others.

“Everyone just wanted to play rugby again,” Pastor Gaby recalled.

“And we were willing to delay registration fees just to get things going.”

The key decisions at this first team managers meeting, whilst searching for shade from the sizzling Ba sun, were (i) to reduce registration fees to $300, (ii) allow clubs time to pay, and (iii) if possible offer those coming down from the highlands some sort a transport subsidy.

Govind Park showed no signs of opening anytime soon, so the Union couldn’t realistically collect any gate takings. And sponsorship for club rugby at that time was literally nil; so Pastor Gaby and his new disciples really did begin their term in office on a hope and a prayer.

A few weeks later, the BRU development team took a drive up the unsealed road to Magodro, high above the Ba basin.

Accompanying them were Apukuki Matavesikula from Tabalei Village and Kaliova Naura, who hails from Balevuto but whose mum comes from Nasivikoso – the last village before crossing the border into Nadi.

“We met with several groups and shared our vision of including these outlying villages in Ba Rugby,” the good pastor said.

“In Tabalei, we inspected the old ground where they’d held 7s tournaments in the past. With a little work, we could see it might reach the bare minimum standards to host club games.”

The team then travelled on to Bukuya, home of Fiji’s highest rugby ground and former national rep Watisoni Votu.

“That was the first orange rugby field I’d seen,” Kautoga said.

“All the grass was gone, the soil was bright orange and one side had a giant gulley cutting into the pitch.”

No one was complaining. It was lush compared to those villages without a rugby field at all. Lastly, our intrepid explorers headed down to Nasivikoso, which has an impressive school rugby field. Several dilemmas arose: Would all these village clubs be willing to travel to Ba town every Saturday to play? Maybe. Could the clubs hold a zone competition first before sending their highest ranked teams to the knockout stages of Ba’s club competition? Also maybe.

And most interesting of all, if the grounds could be upgraded would clubs from the town area be willing to journey up to the highlands and be hosted?

A definite maybe… but government assistance would be needed to improve the grounds. “Many ideas were shared, without any standing out as the obvious solution,” Kautoga said.

“In the end, we agreed that to kick things off a combined Magodro team could come and give the Ba team a warm-up game ahead of the Vanua Championship.”

And somewhere amongst all that those talks with the friendly rugby folk of the highlands, the concept of the Ba Tikina Championships was born.

“We put ‘tikina’ on the agenda at our monthly Members Meeting in July, meaning all clubs had some input. So from concept to reality was literally just three to four months.”

Then the BRU had to find sponsors – no easy task when all you have is an idea and not much of a track record.

Head coach Vilimoni Delasau praised the conviction of the sponsors who came forward to back the proposals.

“We had this idea to raise rugby standards,” the former Flying Fijian wing said.

“But we needed the good people at Ba Industries Ltd, Rooster and Vinod Patel to make it happen.”

Delasau left the grounds last Saturday a little overwhelmed with what he had witnessed.

“The standard of the opening matches blew us away. Now everyone is talking about ‘the tikina’ – the villages, the clubs, the schools.”

And Ului Magodro were magnificent – well coached, physical, fast players who thumped Naloto Takolavo 53-7 in the Ba Industries Cup.

From the East, Savatu Bere na Liva also showed great promise, before falling 24-6 to Nailaga Tiliva Bukuya. It’s a two-hour trek to Ba for most of their players so they have been camping at Koronubu.

Veiyasana Cagilaba, made up from teams based in or around Ba town, overcame Bulu Solesole 30- 5; while Qaliyalatina Bure edged Yakete Nakula 18- 17 in a gripping finale to the day’s play.

The next morning, Pastor Gaby travelled to Maranatawa in Yakete to give a church service.

“It was rather a short service,” he chuckled.

“Many people visited from the neighbouring villages of Yakete and they all wanted to talanoa about the rugby.”

The same scenario was unfolding in the schools. After the young women of Nailaga defeated Bulu 15-5 in a terrific battle in the Rooster Chicken Shield, all of Monday’s talk at school was about the game.

As for the Juniors (under-19s), this is the first time Ba has had competitive club or franchise rugby at this level.

“We plan to introduce Women’s and Juniors club rugby next season,” Kautoga said.

“We will probably start with eight teams for each category, but it’ll be a good way to link up the school players with those who have already left.

“From these Tikina Championships, the training squads for next year’s Skipper Cup and Ranadi Cup will be chosen.”

Back to the original conundrum of how best to include the far-flung villages in the 2024 club rugby season, Pastor Gaby says they will surely find a way.

“This is just the first few steps of the path we are on. If we continue to work diligently and honestly, the way forward will appear.”

• Round 2 of games will be held at Vinod Patel Park today, with the Juniors matches kicking off at 9am. The four Ba Industries Cup games will be streamed live, with the link available on the “2023 Ba Rugby Union” Facebook page.