Ministry, not rain, stops Rewa Galaxy Kaji Rugby Tournament
Only an order by the Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts stopped the Rewa Galazy Kaji Rugby competition yesterday. The competition was continuing in the rain when the Permanent Secretary Iowane Ponipate Tiko gave the order to cancel the tournament. Mr Tiko said it was common sense to do it in the interest of the boys’ health and safety because of the adverse weather.
The 2016 Rewa Galaxy Kaji Rugby tournament has been cancelled due to the bad weather and poor ground conditions. Games were called off yesterday at the ANZ Stadium mid-way through the competition following a directive from the Ministry of Education’s permanent secretary Ioane Ponipate Tiko.
“It’s not the kind of weather the kids should be playing in,” Tiko said. “We are worried about the children’s health and it is common sense that cancelling the games today is the right thing to do.”
Initially the competition was supposed to resume today at different venues but the second meeting yesterday afternoon with Fiji Primary Schools Kaji Association, district managers and the Ministry of Education, the decision was unanimous to cancel the tournament. Fiji Primary Schools Kaji Rugby vice- president Sikeli Vosailagi said the prevailing bad weather and unavailability of grounds around Suva has forced them to call of the tournament.
“After the meeting, we have all agreed to cancel the tournament because the kids’ safety are at risk,” Vosailagi said. “On Monday we started late, we thought about postponing but decided to go through with the tournament with hopes that the conditions would have improved.
“We were also thinking about having games in other grounds around Suva but none are available so the only option is for us to call off the entire competition.
“This is definitely something we can learn from for future games. We need to put in a good plan to ensure that the games next year will go smoothly even if we have to shift it to the West,” he said. “We do apologise for the inconvenience, especially those who have travelled a long way to be here.”