When sevens maestro and family friend Waisale Serevi gifted a rugby ball to one-year-old Jone Kubu and urged him to follow in the footsteps of him and his namesake, his path in the tapestry of life was woven.
Kubu will play with Kenya in the HSBC Vancouver 7s in Canada this weekend, and The Fiji Times travelled to Sawani Village in Naitasiri to speak to his mother Ilisapeci Tavaga yesterday.
For Tavaga, debuting for Kenya in the 7s arena this weekend is an achievement they wished their late patriarch Seveci Tavaga would have been alive to witness as he passed away earlier this year.
Tavaga (mother) believed his inclusion was the alignment of his hard work and determination.
“I remember asking him when he was young, ‘what would you like to do?’,” Tavaga recalled.
“And he did not want to be a doctor, he did not want to be anything else but a rugby player, because he said, I was given a rugby ball, and I’d like to follow that.”
Affirming the vision he conceived, his mother witnessed him extend the path laid out for him even further.
“I know for a fact that he’s following his dreams. We had asked him to come out from Kenya, I think on his third year,” Tavaga highlighted.
“He said no. He said, ‘This is where I rose up to international level, and I’ll stay here to fulfil my dreams of playing in the HSBC (Sevens)’.”
Meanwhile, Fiji is grouped in Pool C and will face Uruguay in their first pool match at 7.18am tomorrow.
