Could you please introduce yourself for our readers:
I’m Penaia Cokomata from Somosomo, Naviti, in Yasawa, and my mother’s village is Sasa, here in Ba. Actually, I grew up in Vatukoula as my Dad worked for the gold mine. I went to Vatukoula Primary School then Tavua College. After my Dad retired, we moved to Sasa, and I did Form 7 at Khalsa College. After school, I didn’t continue to tertiary, I started work at the Nestle factory in Yalalevu.
What about your sporting life?
Well, I played wing in 15s and halfback in 7s. I was also a sprinter and won the Ba District 200 metres race when at Khalsa. At Tavua College, we reached the FSSRU quarter-finals in the U16s, which was a first for Tavua. Vilimoni Delasau was a couple of years ahead of me.
When we moved back to Sasa, there wasn’t a team there so I joined Sorokoba and played for Ba for about 12 years. Our best season was when we reached the semi-finals of the Vanua Championship, but lost to Macuata.
Pio Tuwai and Filipo Nakosi started a 7s team called the FSC Eagles. We won the Nacula 7s and a tournament in Ra that was live on Fiji One.
How did Red Rock come about?
Because we were having success with the Eagles, Red Rock coach Lote Rasiga called me out of the blue and asked me to join his team. Then he added ‘bring your passport.’ That was a huge opportunity for me, so I left Ba to go and live in Qauia, Lami, with the team. My first tournament was at the Darwin 7s in Australia when we lost in the semi-finals to Serevi’s Drifters.
Lote Rasiga also moved me from my normal position of wing to halfback. He was very hard with us at training. That’s when I started to appreciate the importance of being as fit as possible. Sometimes, he made us run from Qauia to Buckhurst Park.
I stayed with Red Rock for five years.
What about your rugby in Ba?
We started a 7s team in Sorokoba called J Brothers. They are still going. In 15s, I moved back to the wing. I was quite small. My playing days ended when I broke my leg at Vinod Patel Park in a 7s tournament.
Mikaele Dreu was coaching us and I learned a lot from him, while his brother Tui also played halfback and joined the Western Crusaders in the old Colonial Cup.
We then formed the Sasa team and ended up holding the Koronubu Shield for three years straight. The club had its ups and downs. When Ba’s club rugby started to improve, I re-joined as head coach in 2024. I saw a big change in the club rugby scene at Vinod Patel Park which became a very busy, energised place each Saturday.
We can see the growth in the last few years, not only in the number of clubs and the standard of play, but in the way local rugby is run.
Sasa did well in 2024, very nearly beating Nailaga in the quarter-finals, so I was asked to join the Fiji Pine Ba Under 20s for the 2025 season as Assistant Coach.
So your coaching pathway has changed?
Yes. It’s very different now. BRU asked me to take the Ba U16s to face Seremaia Bai’s Eastern Saints in January, then as a resource coach I helped the AD Patel U18 Girls ahead of their Raluve games. BRU also appointed me as head coach of the Ba Under 20s.
I wasn’t apprehensive, I was really excited. But I had not coached at that level and I knew eyes would be on me to see if the team could match the 2025 Skipper Cup Semi-final finish.
With each round of matches, I gained more confidence and I had good support from my management and assistant coaches.
In September, FRU invited me to attend the World Rugby Level 3 course in Nadi, and that opened my eyes to so many new aspects of rugby coaching. The importance of player profiling, team profiling and then game plans emerged as a strong theme.
My own philosophy in rugby and life in general is believe, work, achieve.
What about the knock-out stages?
Although we lost to Nadi in the Semi-final, I felt nothing but pride for the boys. We were all crying, the parents were crying, my family was crying… we had come so close, but we went home in the knowledge that we were in the Top Four teams in Fiji, and from Ba!
And what now?
Eighteen players in our enlarged squad are still eligible for the U20s in 2027, while the older players will progress to the seniors. That continuity is important, otherwise it’s easy to lose players.
We still need to instil better discipline on and off the field. We had too many red and yellow cards. The players need to understand how close we are to achieving something so great.
The Skipper Cup is the highest provincial competition in the land, so the players need to make sacrifices. We all do.
Next week, we’ll have our first screening of the 2027 players then fitness tests. We expect many of our U18s to join us.
I’m really excited already.
