SUPPORT is one of the most important things in anyone’s life.
On the rugby pitch, support could build up a player’s self-confidence or it could also tear it down when ego sets in.
But for most of them, the support they receive is used wisely where it builds them up and their self-confidence to achieve a goal.
This is how Vodafone Flying Fijian’s back line player Eroni Vasiteri used the words of wisdom shared to him by a former national rep Ravuama Latilevu and the support rendered to him by his wife, to build him up to finally achieve the goal of becoming a member of the Fiji National XV team.
But for Vasiteri the humble beginnings is something that he won’t forget because it was where his dream of representing his homeland started.
At the young age of 15 years, Vasiteri started playing rugby in school, this is apart from those rugby sessions he would have at home at their own back yard with friends using a plastic bottle or balls made out of paper rolled together and taped properly to maintain its shape like most island boys in that age would do.
Four years, Vasiteri played rugby at a school in Nadi, Swami Viveknand College — a school dominated by Fijians of Indian descent where academic work is more important.
Unlike many secondary school rugby stars, Vasiteri’s rugby also had a humble beginning.
When he was to play in the U19, Vasiteri left SVC to join Lomawai Secondary School playing a little bit more rugby than before, but not as much as secondary schools’ rugby champs like students from Queen Victoria (QVS) or Ratu Kadavulevu (RKS) would do.
“From Lomawai, I joined Training Productivity Authority of Fiji (TPAF) to further my studies, where I played club rugby with the Waila Rugby Club,” Vasiteri said.
It was with Waila rugby club that he also managed to push his way through the Northland rugby team when former Flying Fijians coach, the “human skewer” Ilivasi Tabua was coaching the team with Watisoni Ratulevu.
That was the beginning of Vasiteri tasting provincial rugby in Fiji.
Originally from Nasaucoko, Navosa, Vasiteri returned to his roots in 2013 to represent the Navosa Warriors in the B-Division as they tried to return to the major union competition.
In 2014, Vasiteri continued with his move in rugby and joined the Tovolea Rugby team which is part of the Nadroga Rugby Union — the union of undisputed rugby champs in Fiji.
“In the Tovolea rugby team, I managed to find myself in the Nadroga rugby team and also joined the Daveta 7s team which allowed me to have a taste of national camps via joining the Fiji 7s squad.
“It was also with Nadroga that my cousin, Latilevu, would come and watch my game and never once has he missed out on any Nadroga game when I was there.
“He would continuously tell me that I will one day make the national team, but I had to set my priorities right,” Vasiteri said.
Vasiteri knew what he needed to do to change and he tried to set his priorities right by leaving out things that won’t help him grow in his rugby.
From the 7s squad, his game grew and Vasiteri was selected to be part of the Telecom Fiji Warriors before he was finally cited by the Agen Rugby Club — the former club of rugby “bad boy” and Bua speedster Rupeni Caucaunibuca.
In Nadroga, Vasiteri also found the love of his life, Senimili Bawale.
Just as great reggae singer Lucky Dube sang in one of his numbers “I have gone right around the World trying to find a woman, a woman that will understand me, All the women I had before, Never understood me, Now that I’ve found you baby, I ain’t gonna look no further.”
And he hasn’t because he is getting the support needed from his wife and two daughters — Josivini Kunasiko and Adi Vani Narumasa.
And being with Agen has also taught him a lot about the game.
“My wife has always been very supportive, and it has allowed me to learn so much and also to get this contract I currently have,” Vasiteri said.
“With Agen, I have learnt a lot with my defence, and attack in the position that I hold and how to improve my game when I am a ball carrier and when I am supporting the ball carrier.”
A player that has come through age group rugby from school, going from union to union in search of how he could improve his game and finally making the Flying Fijians is what Vasiteri said could only be possible because of the support he gets from home.
“I can never thank my wife enough because she has always been supportive, she has been a mum and a dad to our daughters when I am away playing the game I love which is rugby and while I am in Fiji with the Flying Fijians, she is back in France with the girls but have given her blessings.”
And for Vasiteri, it’s not only the support that he believes has carried him far, it is also the act of being honest with every responsibility that anyone is given to shoulder.
“I believe and that is something that always motivates my work, to be true to the little things I do and the bigger dreams will just fall into place,” Vasiteri said.
For all the years of trying, to finally make his debut against Samoa in the 2016 Pacific Nation’s Cup, Vasiteri can only be grateful for everything that has built him to be the player that he is, but the Navosa man knows that he still has a long way to go and the learning process will continue, but he keeps reminding himself to “never give up” because he does not want to put to waste the challenges he has managed to overcome throughout the years of his rugby.
He says being in the Flying Fijians with veteran players such as Seremaia Bai and Vereniki Goneva helps him a lot as he plays more on both the centre’s position of 12 and 13.
