“THIS is just the starting and there are many more tournaments to come.”
These were Culden Kamea’s prophetic words to The Fiji Times on Wednesday, March 4, 1992, after he took what was reported as a “rebel” Fijian rugby league team to the Nissan World Seven Rugby League Tournament in Australia a month before.
At the time, the team was made up of renowned Fijian rugby union players who had made their mark in rugby sevens and 15s.
Kamea said these players had “defected” from the union code to league which included the likes of the late Alifereti Dere, his brother Pauliasi Tabulutu, speedster Noa Nadruku, Etuate Waqa, Pio Kubuwai, Nemani Matirewa and Niko Baleiverata.
Rugby league was officially launched in Fiji on Saturday, March 28 that year and its debut season lasted until May.
A major attraction towards rugby league for the players was the opportunity to get paid per match, however, the price paid by the defected rugby players was dear; they were banned from playing rugby union.
And 34 years on since those players leaped into rugby league, the sport has grown from strength to strength with competitions and clubs unfolding in great droves across Fiji.
When the Vodafone Cup men’s and FNRL Women Premiership competitions wrapped up last Saturday, it marked the continued ascension of a sport whose Fijian pioneers paved the way for the game as the Vodafone Fiji Bati prepare for the 2026 Rugby League World Cup in Australia this month.
The Fiji Bati made their WC debut in 1995 in South Africa.
The RLWC kicks off on October 15 and with 13 days to go, there is a lot the Fiji Bati are working themselves towards with new head coach Mick Potter at the helm of ensuring the team puts on its best show when the whistle blows for kick-off.
Fiji is grouped in Pool A with the Cook Islands, Australia and New Zealand, a combination of four formidable teams filled with vastly experienced players who are coming off of a stellar NRL season that ends this Sunday when the Sydney Roosters take on the Newcastle Knights at 8.30pm.
For Potter, he stresses a week of training will be enough.
“One week of training would be enough for the team to connect and strategise,” he said earlier this year.
He coached Fiji at the 2017 RLWC to have them reach the semi-finals by upsetting New Zealand 4-2 in the quarter-final.
As the clock ticks closer to day one of the RLWC, the Bati run onto that field on October 18 to face the Cooks as the solidifying mark of a “rebel” pioneer team in February 1992 that defied the odds to stand the test of time.
Fiji Bati pool fixtures:
Fiji v Cook Islands: October 18 at 5.05pm
FIji v Australia: October 25 at 9.05pm
Fiji v New Zealand: October 31 at 4.30pm
