THE Vodafone inter-zone competition has been hailed a great success with just one year after its inception.
Despite the lack of support from fans, the competition level improved each week until the final on Saturday at Lawaqa Park in Sigatoka. The final of the premier division between Snax Nadi Aviators and Nasinu Titans was only determined in the last quarter before the defending champions escaped with a narrow 20-18 win — this is a simple indication of the rivalry offered in this competition.
This year also mark a new beginning with the inception of the women’s competition. Six teams featured in the tournament and attracted some former and current Fijiana rugby players.
Lautoka Crusaders created history as the first winner defeating Nadroga Knights 26-24 in a mouth-watering battle.
The competition is divided in three divisions — the women’s, under-20 and the premier. These zone teams attract the cream players from all clubs to represent their districts.
The teams are Lautoka Crusades, Nadi Aviators, Ra Roosters, Nadroga Knights, Suva Eagles and the Nasinu Titans. All these team fielded their women, under-20 and premier side.
Nadi dominated this year’s tournament with their under-20 and premier teams winning the top awards while their women team lost to Lautoka in the semi-final.
Fiji National Rugby League CEO Timoci Naleba says the competition is here to stay and more work is needed to grow the event.
He said plan was in the pipeline to use this competition as a selection ground for the future Fiji Bati team.
Naleba said he was pleased with the level of competition displayed in the final.
“The objective of this competition is to have the filtering process so we can select the best from all club teams,” he said.
“At the same time we can have a fair system of selection where the clubs have their best players represented at the zone level meet.
“We want all clubs to be represented and I am sure once we have the best from each clubs- it will have six quality district teams as witnessed this year.”
Naleba said more marketing would be made to lift the reputation of the competition especially in trying to attract the fans.
“We don’t have much support now as it is our second year but we will continue to grow once we go further.”
“After the final today (Saturday), I believe we can confidently market the tournament.”
“Our plan is that for the next two to three years’ time we will use the tournament to select the Fiji Bati team.”
Former Fiji Bati captain and Nasinu Titans coach Vula Dakuitoga said the concept was good tournament needed more awareness and promotions to attract the fans.
He said the competition level had improved drastically compared with last year but there was a need to attract more fans to add flavour to the competition.
“The zone competition — there was not much support from the fans compared with the Vodafone Cup final. There was totally different scenarios,” said Dakuitoga.
“This is what we need to do — build up and make it more popular in terms of fans support.
“The zone meet is a good concept but it’s just the fans that have stayed away. They are used to supporting their clubs rather than the districts unlike our rugby union brothers — they have more support in district or provincial teams instead of the clubs.
“I believe the zones co-ordinators should inform the club officials to persuade their fans to support the zone teams.”
Meanwhile, Fiji Resident coach Jo Dakuitoga said he had selected a Fiji Probables team from the zone competition to battle against the Fiji Residents before selecting the final team to play in the ‘Battle of the Batis’.
He said he had identified some talented players during the finals likewise during the round robin games.
“We want to use this tournament to select other players who we think has what it takes to battle for a spot in the Fiji Bati side for the world cup.
“We want to give every player a chance and the idea of selecting a team to face the Fiji Residents will give second chances to those that have missed out the cut for the Battle of the Batis,” he added.
