It’s scary but get your jabs to stay protected, Kirwan urges all Fijians

Former All Blacks star winger Sir John Kirwan has urged all Fijians to get vaccinated. “I know it can be scary but we’ve got to do it to protect us,” he said.

Sir John was reacting to a Sky Sports video on the impact of COVID-19 in the country where Flying Fijians players of Nemani Nadolo, Manasa Mataele and Ben Volavola shared their experience and their worries on the health safety of their family members families in Fiji.

Mataele and Nadolo could not hold back their tears, when they spoke of the challenges they face with their tem-mates.

Flying Fijians captain, Leone Nakarawa, called on Fijians to be resilient and not to give up.

“Our God is bigger than COVID. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

Fijian-born All Blacks winger Sevu Reece who scored three tries in Hamilton said his thoughts are with the people of Fiji as they go through this tough time.

Change of jersey

Meanwhile, Flying Fijians coach Vern Cotter said the reason his side didn’t wear a jersey supporting COVID-19 vaccinations in Hamilton was because of their major sponsor.

After plans to wear the kit were abandoned for last Saturday’s first test in Dunedin amid opposition from some players, despite COVID-19 cases rising dramatically in Fiji.

The Fijians were set to don them on Saturday night with Fiji Rugby chief executive John O’Connor confirming so earlier this week.

However, the Fiji side, who lost the match 60-13, ended up taking the field with a Fiji Airways sticker across their fronts instead.

Asked at the post-match press conference what the rationale was in terms of the jersey switch, Cotter said the sponsor ended up getting the final say, and that he only found out about the u-turn on game eve.

“Like I said last week, it’s a complex issue,” he told Rugby News.

“The major sponsor offered the spot for ‘Vaccinate Fiji’, and there were questions around whether or not it was a directive.

“And it came back to being a choice. But it was all about awareness. And I think this week people were talking about it, I think it got aired quite well.

“So it came back to the major sponsor, and everyone thought, well, perhaps the job’s been done, we’ll just put the major sponsor back on and just move on with that.

“It was (discussed) with the union– the CEO and the board– and the sponsor.

“You can understand Fiji Airways is suffering a little bit because of COVID and the fact that there is no tourism and there’s no activity for the airline.

“Everybody’s aware of that, the players know. And this seems to be the fair way of representing that major sponsor.”