Veitayaki attends Meads funeral
Former Flying Fijians prop and Matuku native Joeli Veitayaki, was given a special invitation to attend the funeral of New Zealand Rugby legend,Sir Colin Meads in Te Kuitia, a small town in the King Country region of the North Island of New Zealand.Veitayaki played club rugby in the King Country in the 1990s and represented the province and was helped by the great All Black lock.
Veitayaki described his greatest rugby mentor as a ‘supremely competitive family man who was passionate about rugby and someone who was always willing to share his knowledge and love of the game.’
Being the only Fijian rugby representative at the funeral, Veitayaki also expressed his gratefulness to the family of the late Sir Colin Meads.
“I want to thank the Meads Family especially to Lady Verna, Stan, Karen, Kevin, Rhonda, Glynn and Shelley for inviting me to the funeral. It is indeed an honour to also be representing the past and present Fiji players whom the late Sir Colin may have been an inspiration to. The ‘Pinetree’ was such a rugby gentleman and that is why we are all here to bid him farewell,”Veitayaki said.
Veitayaki added that the late Sir Colin had greatly assisted our Pacific Islands boys that had turned up to play for King Country. “He was always on hand to provide assistance and advice to all of us during those early days, and that is why we highly regard him as a father of NZ Rugby,” he said. It was also through the mentoring of the late Sir Colin that enabled Veitayaki to play competitive rugby in New Zealand beginning with the Tokoroa RFC in neighbouring Waikato in 1990.
Prior to the New Zealand stint, Veitayaki was an Island Zone rep from his Island of Matuku from 1985 to 1996 before joining Nuku Rugby Club in Rewa from 1986 to 1987 and the St John Marist Rugby club in 1988 and 1989.Veitayaki now resides in Whangarei in North Auckland.-
Gulf Fijians