Super Leap To Rugby
It’s been some leap from Fijian basketball to Super Rugby for Pita ‘Gus’ Sowakula
Hamilton It’s been quite a leap to Super Rugby for former Fijian basketball international Pita Gus Sowakula.
Sowakula was the latest Chiefs debutant called up to their squad as injury cover and he was thrust into action 66 minutes into their 27-22 victory over the Highlanders in Hamilton last Friday.
When replacing Liam Messam, the 23-year-old looseforward realised a dream that has gathered momentum ever since leaving Fiji for New Zealand when his agent brokered a deal with Taranaki Rugby to place him in the union’s academy at the end of the 2016 club rugby season.
An impressive season with Spotswood United followed, then Chiefs coach Colin Cooper signed him up when leading Taranaki’s Mitre 10 Cup campaign last year, and Sowakula was last week named on the bench against the Highlanders as cover at lock.
The Chiefs’ only fit specialist locks are Brodie Retallick and Tyler Ardron and Sowakula was only converted from a winger to a forward when arriving in Taranaki in 2016.
And Sowakula made his Chiefs debut less than two years after dropping basketball to focus on rugby. Now weighing over 110kg and standing at 1.95m tall, the former basketball centre is living in Hamilton with two young members of the Chiefs squad - halfback Jonathan Taumateine and centre Bailyn Sullivan - after impressing then Taranaki coach Cooper during last season’s national provincial championship.
Sowakula was named the most promising player at the Taranaki Rugby awards in 2017 - two years after claiming a silver medal in basketball with Fiji at the 2015 Pacific Games.
“My dream was to play Super Rugby but I was just aiming to try Mitre 10 Cup and then do well,” the softly spoken Sowakula said.
“I feel happy and grateful to get that opportunity. It doesn’t matter whether I play in the back or the forwards as long as I get game time.”
So if the Chiefs suffer a similar injury crisis with wingers as they have done with locks - Dominic Bird, Mitchell Brown and Fin Hoeata are all out for the season and Michael Allardice (groin) is not at match fitness - then Sowakula would probably be happy to raise his hand to play out wide. He was working in a resort in Fiji when his agent asked him if he wanted to play overseas after playing rugby all his life, then basketball at high school, until focusing on the former when moving to Taranaki.
After struggling with homesickness in the first few months he spent in New Zealand, Sowakula has flourished and Taranaki fans were treated to some excellent and dynamic displays during Cooper’s last season with the province.
Cooper acknowledged the Chiefs’ locking issues after recording their fourth successive win last Friday and Sowakula is contracted only as injury cover in the squad.
But he took an almighty leap on his journey when replacing Messam, the Chiefs’ most capped player in history, and he rose to the occasion in his 14-minute stint.
“He’s physical, he’s fast, he’s big and he’s got the heart of a lion,” Cooper said, “and he’s got some Fijian X-factor.”
The Chiefs aren’t expecting any of their injured players back ahead of facing the Blues in Hamilton on Saturday and they name their team for the Battle of the Bombays on Thursday.