RAWAQA IN OITA TO SUPPORT FIJIAN REPS
RUGBY fans have started to arrive at Oita City in Japan for two 2019 Rugby World Cup quarter-final matches to be played here this weekend.
A city of more than 400,000 people on the island of Kyushu, Oita’s covered arena, the Oita Stadium, will host the England-Australia and France-Wales encounters.
Hotels are slowly picking up customers and the number of hotel rooms to be vacant this weekend will be very little.
The Oita Stadium has a seating capacity of 40,000 so it is expecting about 45,000 extra visitors to pack the city and stadium in the next two days.
A number of Fiji fans are also expected this weekend as they had purchased tickets hoping that the Flying Fijians would have finished first or second in Pool D and play in the quarter-final either on Saturday or Sunday.
Lekima Deivanua Rawaqa had followed the Fijians in all their pool games in Sapporo, Osaka and Oita, hoping they would make the quarters.
“I had booked all Fiji games plus the quarter-final of their pool,” the Viseisei, Vuda man said.
Rawaqa, who is now living in Sydney, Australia, said while Fiji had missed out on the quarters in Oita he still had to watch because he had already bought his tickets.
“I had bought tickets for matches right to the final,” he said.
As Fiji will not be playing in the quarters it is believed the former Lautoka resident will now be cheering for the Australians especially with three Fijian players in the starting lineup.
Samu Kerevi, Marika Koroibete and Isi Naisarani have all been named by Wallabies coach Michael Cheika in the starting fifteen against England.