ONE HAND ON THE CUP!
Fearsome wing Joe Cokanasiga has a unique running style. Now England hope he will have...
ISTILL remember the first time I saw Joe run with the rugby ball i n one hand. He was 15-and-a-half years old and he was playing in Brunei for the Under 18 national team. His big hands would have come from his grandfathers back in Fiji. They never played rugby but they were both massive men.
I guess it’s quite a Fijian way to run — with the ball in one hand, looking for offloads.
Even though we moved away when Joe was two years old, Fiji still has a big influence on Joe’s life. We have been back t here for holidays and Joe grew up playing touch rugby with a lot of Fijian military guys. He looked up to Semesa Rokoduguni, Waisale Serevi and Rupeni Caucaunibuca.
We lived in Germany for a few years before I was posted to Brunei as a senior NCO in the Royal Logistical Corps. In Germany he played football — centre back — and a little bit of tag rugby at school
As soon as Joe started playing rugby properly, I knew he had something special. I dragged him along to my regimental team just before his 16th birthday and lied about his age so that he could play.
I told my boss: “You’ve got to let my boy play. He’s got a future in rugby. He is 17!”
I normally played No 8 but I said “Okay, I need to be next to him to protect him” so we played together in the centres. Did he need protecting? Not really.
Joe was big and fast. He had massive legs and got his size from his grandfathers in Fiji, like I say. He was a bit chubby at the time, too. He ate a lot. He enjoyed a barbecue — lamb chops, pork belly, chicken wings, sausages and cassava.
It was Joe’s attacking play which really stood out. I put together some video footage of him and sent it to Akapusi Qera, the Fiji captain.
Akapusi is a friend of ours, his wife served in the Navy with my brother. Akapusi was playing for Gloucester and their academy coach said ‘Yes, we’ll take him, leave him with us.’
Joe was a mummy’s boy,
‘IN 2015 JOE WAS MASCOT, NOW HE’S ON THE PLANE TO JAPAN!’
though, and his mum didn’t like it. His mum said ‘No, he needs to be with me back in London.’ A week later, Akapusi’s agent called me and said he had agreed a deal with London Irish. The rest is history.
Even though Joe admired a lot of the Fijian players, his idol was Manu Tuilagi. In 2017, I flew over to Hong Kong to watch the British Lions against the Barbarians.
Joe gave me his Lions shirt and said “Dad, can you ask Manu Tuilagi to sign this?” I flew over to Hong Kong but I didn’t meet Tuilagi. I found Brian O’Driscoll, though, and managed to get him to sign the shirt. When I took it back to Joe, he was really sad because I hadn’t found Manu. He even sent a Facebook message to Manu to say that he was his role model.
Back home in Fiji, all of my family have their England shirts ready. There are two guys from my village playing at the World Cup. The other is Waisea Nayacelevu — Joe’ s co us in.Wai sea will be playing for Fiji. We will have a big celebration when Joe comes back — hopefully with a medal.
Joe’s mum and sister will fly out to Japan to watch the games. I will be watching on TV back home because Joe’s brother Phil, who plays for London Irish, has to stay back here.
In 2015, Joe was at Twickenham dressed up as a Fijian warrior before the opening game at the World Cup. I never expected that, four years later, he would be flying out to Japan. No words can explain how proud I am.