“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” That quote was by former US President John F Kennedy. It talks of how many people ‘hate’ change, resisting it and resenting it.
However, it is an irresistible force in the universe and instead of fighting it, we should embrace it. Well, that was how the sport of rugby league first faced its challenges in trying to break a rugby union stronghold with traditions dating back centuries.
And the change was brought about by several men who were worshipped like gods for their prowess on the rugby field – who brought about a coup d’etat of some sort.
Former sports commentator Culden Kamea, now retired and enjoying the sunset from his Lami home, was one man behind the scene, working with players such as former Fiji 7s captain Alifereti Dere and his younger brother Pauliasi Tabulutu, to bring a sport that was ‘foreign’ to Fiji that it warranted life bans from the national governing body – the Fiji Rugby Union.
According to Kamea, it all began in 1991. Fiji had won the Hong Kong 7s title two years in a row. The team was invited to a 7s tournament in Sicily, Italy.
A conversation several months earlier between Kamea and Ken Harvey, an Australian, focused on the topic of how Fiji’s performance in Hong Kong could help ignite a rugby league emergence in nations foreign to the sport, especially the Pacific.
“In 1991, Ken and I were traveling together and he was talking about how the Australian Rugby League (ARL) had seen how popular Hong Kong was and how good it was in spreading the game of rugby union to smaller nations that don’t play rugby,” Kamea recalled.
“So they (ARL) felt they could do the same with rugby league in Australia and try and get emerging nations into the sport. So he (Harvey) believed he could approach them (ARL) about getting a Fijian team to Australia.”
While Kamea said he was hesitant at first about the idea, it was in a villa room in Sicily that conversation with Noa Nadruku fired things up again. So I went with the (Fiji 7s) team to the Sicily 7s in Italy. When I got to Sicily, I was checking in when the team manager Waisake Saukawa told me to stay with them.
“The team had three villas which had three rooms each. So they put in with the backs and I was sharing a room with Noa Nadruku. Noa, as I got to know him more, he was one of those really ‘Gujarati’ kind of guys in terms of money. He was always talking about how his cousins playing rugby were making peanuts and that he wanted to make his money.
“That was what all started it. I never thought about rugby league or professional rugby at that time.”
Kamea said he returned from Sicily and talked to Harvey about going ahead with the plan.
“He (Harvey) actually encouraged me to take this team to Sydney for the Nissan 7s World Series. So Bob Abbort, the Australian Rugby League general manager, said they would help fund the team.
“When I got back to Fiji, the first guy I went to see was Pauliasi Tabulutu. As you know in the history of rugby in Suva, Tabulutu was very influential. He told me to talk to Alifereti Dere because was the captain. So I went to Dere at Nabua Village. To me, that’s where it all started because he was the captain of the Fiji 7s team and he had everything to lose.
“I think this was about October 1991 and he was thinking about it for a while he said ‘Culden if I do it, it’s not for me’.
“He said to me in Fijian that his sun was setting. ‘If I do it, I do it for the future’ and I’ll never forget that because he had everything to lose. He gave up the captaincy for the Fiji team and many people have forgotten that it was a very serious thing we were doing. We were rugby union amateurs and what we were doing was a very big tabu because we were going to upset the Fiji Rugby Union traditions – Ratu Kamisese Mara was the president.
“So Dere said he would do it. He said to go to Ratu Kitione Vesikula (former Fiji 7s coach) and tell him. So I was apprehensive about going, but these guys were very honourable men – their word was their bond. I went to Tu Kiti and he gave me his full blessings.
He said; ‘Don’t worry about FRU, they will jump and give you a hard time, you take the boys.’
“We took four of the players — Dere, Tabulutu, Niko Baleiverata and Nadruku.
“When I went to Namatakula to see Noa, within five minutes he said ‘Io’. He made the most because he was at the prime of his career, while the others were at the sunset of their careers.
“With the help of Ben Osbourne in particular, we went to Eddie Waqa in Nadera, Nemani Matirewa and Pio Kubuwai in Nausori.”
The team was made up of Baleiverata, Dere, Kubuwai, Matirewa, Nadruku, Tabulutu, Waqa and Australia-based players Livai Nalagilagi, Acura Niuqila and Jo Rabele Dakuitoga, Kamea was the team manager.
Kept under wraps, the team was secretly put together and finalised in December before the tournament in February 1992. With the players assembled, Kamea felt the need to include a mentor – someone with the calibre of Ratu Kiti who could motivate the players well.
“With the help of Luke Raikadroka, a soldier in the army, we approached Sitiveni Rabuka. Rabuka was not the prime minister at the time and wished us the best of luck in trying to get his visa to Australia because he was not popular with the Australian and New Zealand governments,” Kamea said.
“To show how influential the Australian Rugby League is, they said to take the passport to the Australian embassy. And one day later, he (Rabuka) got his visa approved. We had left without Rabuka. When we were in the dressing room just before the Canberra game, the doors burst open and Rabuka came in and he psyched them up well that we beat the Raiders.”
The side returned home $10,000 richer, with the players sharing the prize. Kamea said Waqa and Kubuwai stayed on in Australia while the Fiji-based players returned to Fiji fans who were ready to embrace the sport, but not without retribution from the parent rugby union body.
“I stayed on in Australia for about a week and I kept getting calls from Fiji saying this thing had gone crazy. The team came back to a lot of support. Young boys were wanting to play rugby league – Nadera, Nabua, Nausori, wherever the players came from. Rugby union players were wanting to play rugby league. The popularity had grown.
“So when I came back, an Australian guy by the name of Mark Dennis helped us set up the structure for each club. Nabua was a natural because Dere and Tabulutu were there, but we had to do a lot of coaching because the boys did not know the rules. The pioneer clubs were Nabua, Nadera Panthers because of Eddie Waqa, Kubuwai and Matirewa in the Nausori Bulldogs.
“We were banned when we got a letter from the Fiji Rugby Union. But it just had to happen — if it wasn’t us, someone else would have done it.”
Kamea took his hat off to the players for their courage to go against the tide and bring about change.
“In the very beginning, we always wanted to pay the players. It was no point starting rugby league if you don’t pay them. It wasn’t much in the beginning; I think it was $45 for a win for each player on the team sheet, $15 for a loss, and $30 for a draw.
“That was the beginning and now we’ve managed to start it in the schools where all the talent is now.”
