WHETHER they finish strongly or not, the Lilian Amazons women’s rugby teams will depart the Fiji Bitter Nawaka 7s with a growing sense of dedication to their craft and talent as aspiring rugby players.
This is the message shared by the club’s secretary, Neville Koop, with the Nawaka 7s starting tomorrow.
“We have a focus on attitude and dedication to their goals, so our goal is to have these girls come out of this tournament as better players than what they were when they started and then when we go to the Marist 7s in a couple of weeks, that they take what they have learned at Nawaka and improve themselves there so that after each tournament, they are better than the one before,” Koop said.
The team has been preparing diligently and some of its younger players have stepped up to fill in key roles left vacant by their senior teammates who are currently away with the Fiji Airways Fijiana 7s team for the New York 7s in the United States this weekend and with the Vodafone Fijiana XV.
“A lot of them are still teenagers; they are taking the places of a number of our senior players,” he mentioned.
“We currently have two or three of our senior players in New York and we have another three or four who are with the Fijiana XVs squad preparing for the Test match and we have another four over in the United Kingdom at the moment, playing with a partner club we have over there.”
The club has fielded two teams for the Nawaka 7s and Koop emphasised how these teams would add a new edge to the women’s competition with the hopes of seeing the two sides make it to the cup final.
Lilian Amazon 1 is grouped in Pool 2 with the Drodrolagi Sisters, Team Up Against Drugs Police Blue and Ezers Womens.
Lilian Amazon 2 is grouped in Pool 1 with Kasabias Sinukakala, Loloma Heights and the Nawaka Womens team.
“We’ll be happy if we can make the semis and with two teams in there, our dream would be to have both teams play in the final but we’ll just have to wait and see.”
