In January, you meticulously plot the season ahead… club rugby, junior rugby, development programmes, coaching and referee clinics, off-season and pre-season training for the Skipper Cup and Subrails Marama Championship sides along with warm-up games.
You give your teams every best opportunity to do well on the field by providing what they need off the field.
After that, it’s up to the coaches and the players themselves to step up and do their best to win the provincial games.
Ba Rugby’s club season in 2026 went magnificently well… 43 junior teams from Under 14 to Under 20 followed by 10 weeks of club rugby with 38 senior teams.
The main club finals were held at 4R Stadium, Govind Park, in front of a lively crowd.
The Vinod Patel Ba Men’s side played five warm-up games and acquitted themselves well. Then they camped for several weeks heading into the Skipper Cup.
Not just good plans, but a solid execution of them too.
Ben Tora’s side were inches away from snatching a draw with Suva on 1 August and dominated their Round 2 match against Tailevu for an hour or more.
Then came the subs, the ‘impact players’ as today’s rugby calls them. But the fresh legs didn’t have the desired effect, instead Ba gave up a handy 14-point lead to lose at the death 19-20.
Seven days later at Lawaqa Park, the same story. Ba led newcomers Taveuni 25-15 with 10 minutes to play. On came the subs and off went the momentum. Again, Ba lost at the death 25-27.
Today, Ba face another Skipper Cup new arrival in Navosa up in the highlands.
After three consecutive narrow losses, a win for Ba is essential. The senior team bus drove all the way round to Sigatoka yesterday, then went up the valley road to Keiyasi – that’s more than four hours.
Not so cautious the Fiji Pine Ba U20s who hired a three-ton truck and went over the top via the mountains of Magodro.
Led by new head coach Pena Cokomata, the Under 20s recorded successive wins over Tailevu and Taveuni as they look to go one better than last year’s semi-final finish in the Skipper Cup.
The road over the top isn’t always passable in the rainy season, so hopefully this week’s wet weather won’t hinder them.
Last night, they were hosted by Navala villagers halfway up the highland road. They’ll get an early start today so they can recover from the bumpy ride before the 1pm kick-off at Vatureba Park.
Meanwhile, the NEWWORLD IGA Ba Women’s game with Nasinu keeps on moving.
Initially, it was booked to be played at Suva Grammar, but on Thursday that fell through and Nasinu were left hunting for an alternative ground.
Yesterday, the two teams were all set to kick off at 11am at Veiuto, but the waterlogged conditions had ruled that out by lunchtime.
Therefore, although this is Nasinu’s home game, it will be played at Ba Methodist High School at 11am today with the southern side driving around the King’s Road.
“At midday, Sitiveni Kuruvitu’s team were all ready to leave Ba for Suva before the changes came,” BRU Secretary Gaby Kautoga said. “Instead, they camped in town and had a Captain’s Run in the afternoon.”
“Logistics have been tough this week,” he admitted. “It’s the third week out of four where there have been last-minute changes to fixtures, mostly because of ground availability.”
“Not much we can do but roll with it and try to not let it affect the players.”
“We can plan, plan and plan,” he said, “but even then we have to be ready to change everything.”
