Nadi Rugby president Mataiasi Nabau is calling on the Fiji Rugby Union to stop the blame game and own up to its poor planning.
This is in relation to the first Inkk Farebrother Trophy challenge this weekend which will see current holders Nadi travel to Lawaqa Park in Sigatoka where they will meet Lautoka tomorrow.
Traditionally, the holders of the trophy would host the first challenge, but the FRU has decided to move it to Lawaqa Park because Prince Charles Park in Nadi has been booked by the Fiji Airways Kaiviti Silktails for their Jersey Flegg match on Saturday.
“Why didn’t they tell us way before the Skipper Cup started, they know that as soon as the regular rounds end we will have the Farebrother Challenge, but we weren’t informed until Monday which didn’t give us enough time to book the ground,” Nabau claimed.
Nabau argued that the Silktails dates and venues were locked in from January which meant that the FRU had no excuse for their late action.
“FRU doesn’t even have its own ground after so many years of operation, tell Sale (Sale Sorovaki) not to play the blame game. We are supposed to book three, four or five months in advance but we were only told on Monday morning of the dates and asked to book for Saturday.”
Sale Sorovaki, who is the FRU’s general manager operations and development, said several factors had resulted to this.
“Nadi had a pending game which they played against Naitasiri, likewise Suva and Tailevu. So we had to wait for the results of those games to be able to determine who challenges first, the results affected the standings. With that and because rugby league had already booked Prince Charles Park, we had no other option but to shift it all to Lawaqa.
“They were given the opportunity to come up to us on Monday, but they didn’t, and we had to decide because we also have logistics, bookings, and payments to make, so we needed to be early. Maybe next week but not this week,” Sorovaki said.
Sorovaki said while Nadi is the holder of the Farebrother Trophy, the competition still belongs to the FRU and with the shortage of grounds, they have had to shift games to other venues.
The Nadi president felt there was an underlying reason to this.
“They want a common ground for gate takings. They can’t even consult the union, there is no AGM or SGM before our major competitions. They should not be blaming Nadi because they did not give us enough time, we could have booked the ground in advance if they had given the Farebrother dates when they released the Skipper Cup dates,” Nabau stated.
Despite the difference, Nadi rugby has accepted this and has even laid the challenge that they can play on Vanua Levu or Kadavu if the powers that be decide to do so.
Saturday’s Farebrother Challenge will kick-off at 3pm.
