The under-16 Swami Viveknanda College girls team got their 2022 Weet-Bix Raluve Trophy competition to a good start holding Sigatoka Methodist School in a 10-all draw yesterday at Lawaqa Park in Sigatoka.
Team manageress Vika Bakewa was proud of the effort shown by her players in their first outing his year.
“First of all I would like to thank the Lord, all the glory and the honour goes back to Him,” said Bakewa.
“I am happy that we did well today (yesterday) and I am proud of the effort shown by these girls, especially not being shown a card in the match. They stuck to what the coach taught them and it turned into fruition.”
Bakewa said they had more than 100 players attending the trials where she managed to pick her 40-member squad.
“There were about 100 plus girls wanting to be a part of the U16 team. We only had a one day trial where we chose the best 40. At the start, we lacked skills and the girls did not know what positions they wanted to play in but we had been improving for the last three weeks and the performance against Sigatoka Methodist is just a glimpse of the girls talents. We are the only U16 girls team from Nadi and the players were happy when they were told they would be playing in Sigatoka.”
She thanked the school management and parents for supporting the development of girls rugby in their school.
“I want to thank the parents who traveled with us all the way from Nadi to support and watch them play. When it comes to extra curricular activities, the school goes all out in supporting the school teams and we thank the management for enabling us to come all the way to Sigatoka and play. This the beginning of something good for this girls who are all keen on wearing the Fijiana jersey in the near future.”
Parents shared how the town of Nadi ran out of rugby boots and mouth-guards throughout the week depicting the level of support Secondary rugby has from the west in both he boys and girls competitions.
