Queen Victoria School under-18 will be hanging its championship tag at the gates of HFC Bank Stadium as it heads for its Vodafone Super Deans quarter-final match today.
Speaking to Times Sport for the first time since the start the season, captain Anare Tabakaucoro said they would not be coming in as defending champions, but as a team desperately vying for the trophy.
He said the team has been issued a stern reminder about QVS’s legacy at the Deans and the players were ready to stand up to the challenge.
“We were given this analogy to win the title rather than defend it. It meant that this is our year for the current crop of players to win the trophy and continue the winning legacy, defending is for the 2023 team, we have to win it,” Tabakaucoro explained.
The national quarter-finals is a different level of competition altogether, but it is a territory QVS has been in and conquered before having won the most Deans Trophy since it started in 1939.
QVS has won the Deans 24 times.
“Our school is known for its dominance in secondary schools’ rugby, and it has a legacy to maintain in the Deans competition. The onus is on us to uphold that and go back to school with the 2024 Deans title in the back, taking back that championship tag we hung at the gates from the beginning,” the Nakalawaca, Namara in Tailevu lad stated.
The team is anticipating a gruelling encounter against Marist Brothers High School in their quarter-final clash today.
“At school we’ve talked about how Marist is a team to be reckoned with, they are one of the giants from the southern zone capable of winning. We know that all schools will want to win, and we have so much respect for them.”
QVS battles Marist today, 3.55pm at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva.
