WHAT’S a journey without faith, sacrifice and hardwork? These are the three pillars that drives the IMAT-sponsored Gau Kacau team in 7s rugby.
A team that’s been playing together for the past three years, improvements have been noticed in their run — ones that surpasses the struggles and challenges they faced.
The side reached the cup quarter-final stages of the men’s tier one category of the RC Manubhai Nataleira 7s tournament that concluded yesterday at Ratu Cakobau Park in Nausori.
An underdog team is what one would call them as they constantly fit in the top eight sides of any tournament they’ve competed in.
While their progress is commendable, the side is hungry to taste victory.
“We had a good run in this tournament reaching the cup quarter-final. We’ve been playing together for the past three years and the farthest we’ve gone in a competition is the cup quarter-finals.
“The work doesn’t stop, we try to get better every in every tournament we take part in and for sure we’ll reach the top soon,” team captain Pei Navauvau stated.
The next task now is the mecca of local rugby 7s tournament in March 2025.
“This year, we took part in the Fiji Bitter Yalovata 7s in Levuka, the Nawaka 7s in Nadi. We reached the cup quarter-finals in both tournaments. Now we look towards the Marist 7s next year,” the captain added.
On route to the Marist 7s next year, the challenge lays in player availability during training.
“Majority of these boys are working; some are schooling so training together every afternoon is a major challenge. Those who are not working would train at midday so for now the focus for us is to train together and commit to our training. Sometimes we would have only five players at training so that’s our biggest challenge,” Navauvau said.
Finance is another challenge that they face which has forced the players to do their own fundraising to meet the needs and requirements of a rugby team.
