“The World Cup will be different.”
These were the sentiments of Vodafone Fiji Bati head coach Wise Kativerata when questioned about the team’s trajectory to the 2026 Rugby League World Cup following their 18-50 loss to the Papua New Guinea Kumuls in the Pacific Bowl two weeks ago.
Kativerata said the major point of difference is the preparation time given to them.
“The world cup is a different story altogether, we got weeks to prepare.
“But for the Pacific Championship, we just come in for a week, train and play then we go again and come back. We tried to ask the NRL to give us the same opportunity as the Kumuls,” he said.
While not pondering on the loss for too long, Kativerata said mapping out the way forward is vital now as 11 months remain until the 2026 RLWC in Australia and PNG.
“The World Cup will be different, we have to go back to the drawing board, talk to the senior players and see what we can come up with.”
Reflecting on their Pacific Championship’s Pacific Bowl journey, Kativerata argues that there were more positives than negatives to be noted.
“There’s a lot of positives that came from the game when you look back in the past three years. In the first year, we groomed 11 players from the Bati, and they went to the next level.
“When you look at it, no one knew Kurt Donoghoe, Kitione Kautoga, Caleb Navale and now we are looking at grooming other kids. We don’t have the luxury like Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Samoa as rugby union is the number one sport in Fiji, so we just got to try and grow our own players.
“We are lucky enough the NRL is giving contracts to these young Fijian kids to go abroad and play so it’s a major upset and when you look at it, we got about 22 players that debuted in this tournament alone.”
The 2026 World Cup will feature 26 men’s, women’s and wheelchair teams from up to 16 nations playing 51 matches over five weeks in Australia and PNG.
