TWENTY-NINE days from today, the world will be plagued with rugby league fever in the lead-up to the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.
It will be co-hosted by our regional neighbours Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
The 15th Rugby League World Cup, boasting 28 matches will be between October 26 and December 2.
The Vodafone Fiji Bati is pooled in Group D and will play the United States (Oct 28 in Townsville, Aust), Wales (November 5, Townsville), and Italy in Canberra on Nov 10.
The national coach will be Michael ‘Mick’ Potter, the assistant coach of Newcastle Knights and a former coach of Super League clubs in England such as Catalans Dragons, St. Helens, Bradford Bulls, and National Rugby League (NRL) club Wests Tigers.
He was also a former NRL player having played for the Canterbury Bulldogs and a former captain of the St George Dragons.
Fiji Bati vision and mission
The ‘Road to Glory’ theme for the Fiji National Rugby League in this year’s RLWC was planned four years ago under the current board led by chairman and Suva-based lawyer, Filimoni Vosarogo.
The aim is to be the game changers in the sport in the 2017, 2021 and 2025 RLWCs.
FNRL chief executive officer Timoci Naleba said they wanted to improve the Fiji Bati results this year compared with the semi-finals finish in the past two world cups – 2008 and 2013.
“Most importantly is to get the players to fit into positions. That is the biggest task Mick Potter will have when selecting the Vodafone Fiji Bati to the Rugby League World Cup,” Naleba said.
“Mick knows how Fijians think and how we play. He tried that in Samoa early this year and it worked very well. That is how he will set his selection criteria.
“If you look at the players, almost all of them are playing NRL. They are all game changers. We have players such as Jarryd Hayne, Jason Bukuya, John Sutton who is Rotuman, even the young players like the Saifiti brothers (Daniel and Jacob) who are making impacts with Newcastle Knights, and we have Suliasi Vunivalu who is a star of this season.
“We have the players with their capabilities. Now Mick Potter has to put them into a good team. That is the most difficult part. Getting players to play in their positions and in a structure that is workable. It is about how it is going to work out. From there then it is about how to move the team forward.
“It is basically what a coach would do. Getting his structure and the concept of the game and the players who will play the game.”
Importance of the RLWC
“We felt that being in two semi-finals in past world cups is a testimony of how hard we have worked over the years,” Naleba continued.
“This one is different because involved in the world cup now are professionals and very competitive players. The world cup has been expanded on the number of teams and it is becoming bigger and very competitive.
“The Fiji Bati, after reaching two past semi-finals, the expectation from sponsors, from our followers, from fans and from the nation is that we will either equal or better our performance. The aim now is to better the performance from the last world cup.”
Preparation
“Right now we have a squad of 40 which is in the world cup portal. This is the requirement from the world cup organising committee. From that 40, the head coach will select the final 24 which is due on October 21 where the head coach will have to confirm the names. They will play in the world cup.”
With the RLWC 54 days away from today. Support and assistance for the national side continues to pour in. Government leads the assistance with monetary help coupled with help from corporate sponsors to get the FNRL to meet its budget to play well in Australia, especially in the pool matches.
“To see a full house in Nadi in our local competition is an indication on how much people are looking forward and supporting our Fiji Bati and the sport. Another indication is the primary schools and the women’s competitions which we have started and the amount of response we received especially from primary schools, we had to stop because of the resources we have. There were more in numbers who wanted to participate.”
Funding
“The total budget for the Fiji Bati is $1 million. Government is helping, Vodafone has given us a separate allocation, Pacific Energy has also come on board to help us and had presented cheques from their campaign.”
History
Rugby league came to Fiji in 1992. There are reports that some Fijians such as the ‘Flying Fijian’ Josefa Levula was among early Fijians who converted to the game earlier on.
This was when they were scouted and recruited to play in England in clubs like Rochdale Hornets which hosted the Vodafone Fiji Bati in the last RLWC.
From 1992, the sport soared to new heights helped by the then Super League era in Australia under the Australian Rugby League (ARL).
Fiji beat Great Britain 40-8 and France 20-12 in 1994 under the captaincy of front-rower James Pickering. Fiji had also produced stars like Noa Nadruku who joined the Canberra Raiders, Pio Kubuwai, Kaiava Salusalu, Livai Naligilagi and a lot more.
Fijians also got to see more of the sport’s super stars from Australia like Canberra Raiders’ Mal Meninga, Ricky Stuart, Laurie Daley, Ken Nagas, David Furner, Brett Hetherington and Brett Mullins accompany Nadruku to the then Fiji Rugby League 7s in the 1990s.
Other players included Brisbane Broncos’ Julian O’Neill, Andrew Gee, Mark Sargent of Newcastle, and Dragons Anthony Mundine who is now a professional boxer, and David Barnhill and Tyrone Smith of the Rabbitohs.
Fiji’s first RLWC was in 1995 in England captained by Nalagilagi, followed by 2000 which was hosted by England, France and Ireland. Australia was the champion. And then 2008.
In the 2013 RLWC, Fiji was pooled with Australia, England and Ireland. The Fiji Bati beat the Wolfhounds 32-14, but lost 2-34 to Australia and 12-34 to England. The Rick Stone-coached Fijians met Samoa and won 22-4 in the quarter-finals. It was our second RLWC semi-final. We lost 0-64 to the Kangaroos which had Hayne. Australia won the final 34-2 against New Zealand.
Now with Canada, the Battle of the Bati and the Tri-Nations, our pre-world cup matches, Naleba said the Vodafone Fiji Bati could succeed if they rode on the support of the nation.
“Sport, either rugby, football or netball, is always a language spoken by everybody. Everybody understands sport, irrespective of race and age.
“It is something that always unites the nation. Fijians are best known for our love for sports and rugby league is not going to be different.
“We saw the number of people who supported the team in Nadi in 2013 after the RLWC. It is always good not to miss out from the beginning, so for anyone to enjoy that happiness after a successful tournament, it is good to start from the beginning.
“Grow with the team, know the players and to be part of the whole preparation. I am urging the public to participate in all our activities because in that way, you are helping in the build-up and the players know that they are loved by their nation,” he said.
