Special gift
THE gift to scout for raw talents and groom them into star players is what has made Peni Veidreyaki among one of the best rugby 7s coaches in the country.
Veidreyaki, who built a reputation with the Namoli Rugby Club edged two other high profile candidates, Rupeni Ravonu and Ratu Kitione Vesikula Tuibua to take up the post as the Fiji 7s coach in 1999 guiding the team in the inaugural World Sevens Series which was then known as the International Rugby Board (IRB) 7s series.
The appointment came as a surprise for many however Veidreyaki’s winning achievements with Namoli in local and overseas tournaments proved to be the decisive factor.
In 1997 Namoli toured Australia and South Africa remaining unbeaten in three tournaments bagging $60,000.
The side included captain Viliame Satala, Levi Tamaivena, and Eliki Tiko from Namoli Village and recruits Saimoni Rokini, Aporosa Dauvucu, Ro Kini Kiliraki, Lalai Driu.
Sponsored by Post Fiji, Telecom Fiji and Sofrana Unilines, Namoli scooped $5000 at the Elizabeth 7s in Adelaide defeating Auckland 28-26 in the final.
The side went on to beat North Harbour 21-19 in the final of the Collex Adelaide International 7s tournament collecting $25,000.
Namoli then headed to Cape Town in South Africa and grabbed the Stellenbosch 7s title adding another $30,000 to their coffers.
While in South Africa, Veidreyaki visited the famous Robben Island where the late Nelson Mandela was imprisoned and later met him in person in 1999.
“I was really blessed to have connections with one of the executives of the Namoli Rugby Club who passed away last month Filipe Ravouvou,” Veidreyaki said.
“He was a vanua man and the president of the Lautoka Rugby Union and he invited me to coach the team because I was raised in their village.
“In those days the biggest prizemoney for a 7s tournament was $15,000 which was at the Vatukoula 7s so we decided to train and tour Australia and South Africa.
“In South Africa we visited Robben Island and I took photographs of the cell where Nelson Mandela was held.
“Ironically I met Mandela in 1999 during the IRB 7s series. It was a humbling experience and I was fortunate to meet him at the tournament hotel as all the boys were out in town.
“I was with legendary sports broadcaster Keith Quinn from New Zealand.
“The funny thing is that he asked me where you are from and I said Fiji and he did not know Fiji. I asked him if he knew the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara he said no but he knew about Tonga and Queen Salote.”
Veidreyaki’s origins are from the Waya Island in the Yasawa Group but he was brought up at Namoli Village.
During IRB Sevens Series in 19992000 it was a tight race for the title against New Zealand.
Fiji won five tournaments with New Zealand winning four heading into the final event in France. However Veidreyaki had to take a second string team to the final Paris 7s in late May 2000, because of the national 15s Pacific Rugby Cup commitments.
The team lost to Argentina 35-21 in the quarter-final and ended up six points short of eventual title winners
New Zealand.
In that year Fiji and New Zealand were the dominant forces in the series winning five titles each.
The difference at the end was New Zealand’s win at the Hong Kong 7s which then offered additional points.
Veidreyaki attended Vuda District School and then Lelean Memorial School.
“At that time there used to be a lot of rivalry between Lautoka Fijian School and Vitogo District School,” he said.
“There were A Grade, B Grade and C Grade divisions for the primary schools.
“I started as a C Grader in class six in 1965.
“From there I went to Lelean Memorial School in 1967. That is where I joined the ranks with the Deans Trophy players. We had the midgets, bantam, juniors, seniors and open divisions.
“I was lucky enough to be introduced into the bantam division in 1969. We won the secondary schools title in that division beating Queen Victoria School in the final.
“Kalivati Bakani, Alipate Sikivou and all the Ligairis were in the QVS team.
“I was with Simeli Radrodro. We created history because we upset St John’s College who were undefeated the whole year. We beat them in the quarter-finals and we were the lucky fourth to reach the semi-finals. They had Master Penasio Cerecere who was one of the top sprinters at the South Pacific Games.”
Veidreyaki left Lelean in 1970 and returned to Namoli. He played for the Namoli club before jumping on an opportunity to travel to Australia.
“During my time in Australia, I played rugby league and not rugby union,” Veidreyaki said.
“The likes of Bob Fulton and Ron Coote were the top Australian players who were participating. I played junior competition in Eastern Suburbs and also played with New Town. The years were from 1972 to 1975. Upon my return I took up rugby union again and played for the Lautoka colts side. However I never represented the senior side.
“There used to be a lot of rivalry between the village teams from Vitogo, Vuda and Namoli.
“I was lured into the coaching clinics which were arranged by the Fiji Rugby Union. It was conducted by George Simpkin who was the national coach at that time.
“I was then appointed as the Namoli coach for both 15s and 7s and started my coaching career in 1985.
“Namoli ruled 7s in Fiji in the 1990s. We had the likes of Bill (Viliame Satala) and Eliki Tiko who all went on to make big names for themselves.
“It is hard recalling how many players I have groomed because the list can go on and on.
“Filimoni Delasau, Norman Ligairi, Semisi Naevo, Apolosi Satala, even Seru Rabeni, Aminiasi Natuyaga and Temesia Kaumaia.
“I picked them from their clubs into the national team.”
At the age of 68, Veidreyaki still has passion to coach and also help Gareth Baber in the bid to win the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Veidreyaki said the focus when he took up the national 7s position was more on 15s than the abbreviated code.
“At that time the selection was more focused on the 15s team,” he said.
“During the selection the national 15s coach (Greg Smith) had the upper hand in selecting his team.
“In fact Smith told me that he did not have any knowledge about the 15s players but knew about my 7s players.
“Smith said that he would be selecting most of my boys for the first Pacific Rugby Cup. That was the time we had to travel to Paris for the France 7s and he took majority of my boys. We had just to beat our opponent in the quarter-finals to be in contention to win the series but lost to Argentina.
“Not only that, we left Fiji just couple of days after the coup so the mindset of the players was not right.
“Most of them were village boys and were worried about their families back home.”
Veidreyaki had a cordial relationship with national team manager the late Epeli Lagiloa. However Lagiloa was his senior at Lelean so there was bit of respect as well.
“The coach has more say in the naming of the team and I was doing my own selection,” he said.
“However Epeli was ahead of me at school in Lelean. He was the prefect and I was the junior boy so I had a lot of respect for him.
“I think that I’m gifted to have an eye for scouting players. When I first went for the interview for the national 7s job All Blacks legend Andy Haden was the chairman of the selection panel.
“I was there short-listed with Ratu Kiti (Kitione Vesikula Tuibua) and Rups (Rupeni Ravono).
“After I got the job, the late Paula Cavu who was a Fiji Rugby Union executive told me that Hayden had given me a free hand to select players.”
Veidreyaki says Fiji has the best chance to win the gold medal at the Olympics this year.
“Fiji can win the Olympic gold medal in Japan looking at the program set up by Baber,” he said.
“Things are looking positive for Fiji. Gareth has a lot of depth in the squad with the inclusion of the overseas based players.”