Surviving week to week in rugby
WITH so much rugby activity going on at all levels, it’s very easy to take for granted how far Ba Rugby has come in the past 12 months.
Today, the Island Zone Ba Women take on Cakaudrove at Subrail Park in Labasa for a place in the Ranadi Cup semi- nals. It’s a huge moment for Saiasi Koroi’s side, who began the season with back-to-back home defeats.
Meanwhile, at Thomson Park in Navua, Vinod Patel Ba will face Namosi in Round 8 of the Skipper Cup with victory essential for Vilimoni Delasau’s team if they are to achieve their ambition of reaching the quarter- nals for the rst time in the province’s history.
And the Fiji Pine Ba Juniors, who lost at home last week to Macuata, will need to rediscover their winning form against Namosi to get a favourable draw in the knock-out stages.
During their thrilling 30-30 draw with Kadavu last week, the Ba Women showed their strengths – and weaknesses – then took the Thursday night boat to Vanua Levu in high spirits for their rst ‘overseas trip’.
Because it’s a quarter- nal, the Fiji Rugby Union cover the costs of the women’s travel to Labasa which is a huge relief for Ba Rugby whose transport costs since Round 1 on 24 February have exceeded $20,000.
“We are very grateful to FRU for covering these fares,” BRU secretary Gaby Kautoga said. “Finances are so tight at the moment as our expected income from the Nadroga and Nadi games was $9000 below budget because of the wet weather.”
The sole reason for the Skipper Cup starting this year in the rainy season is to assist the Drua in case they get injured players, but the move has led to increased nancial pressures on provisional teams. This will no doubt be a hot topic of discussion when the Skipper Cup is reviewed next month.
“We were so pleased to be able to host the two Macuata teams last Saturday. They camped in Ba all week to prepare for their games with Yasawa (today),” Kautoga added.
“We really felt for them – another of the smaller unions having to pay more than $6000 for their boat fares alone.”
In the days of the Sanyo Cup (2006-07) and Digicel Cup (2008-12), the parent body FRU covered all the transport costs for the participating teams, just as they did when Rabe were part of the Telecom Fiji Cup in 2003 and played their home matches in Taveuni.
“This season, Ba Rugby has been giving players their bus fares to come to training. It’s only $1, $2, $4 per player per day, but with 100 players training daily, it amounts to about $700 every week.
“Then we have the added cost of looking after the boys from the highlands. Their return fare from Magodro is $240 each week plus another $100 for their camping costs. It’s something we really wanted to do as they are an integral part of the team,” Kautoga explained.
Whilst the FRU grant from the sponsorship with CJ Patel is very much appreciated, it only covers about one third of the running costs of the three teams. The remainder comes from the generosity of Vinod Patel, Fiji Pine and Island Pharmacy as team sponsors, plus whatever gate takings can be collected.
“It’s a constant concern,” the talatala said. “We have been surviving on a week-to-week basis. If we can keep our place in the Skipper Cup, then hopefully we can be more settled next season.
“Our club rugby kicks off in May and the Ba Tikina Championships start in September – these are our building blocks for the three representative teams.”
Coach Delasau pointed out that Ba Rugby’s increase in prominence means that perspective can sometimes go astray.
“Because of Ba Rugby’s relative recent success after three decades as a minor union, some critics seem to think we should already be beating teams like Nadi and Nadroga. Well, it’s not as easy as that,” the coach said.
“This Vinod Patel Ba team has only been together for nine months in total. Yes, we have made costly mistakes in some games, but we’re a young side which is learning every week.”
“I played for Ba the last season we were in the top ight back in the 1990s and we were getting beat by
60, 70 points. Of course, we wanted to nish with better results against Tailevu and Lautoka, but the boys are working hard, training hard and putting their bodies on the line for the vanua.”
“When you see the excitement of the fans who come to the games to cheer for their team, you can truly feel the energy surrounding Ba Rugby. Something special is happening here, but we need to keep building, keep improving, keep nding ways to improve everything we do.”
Ba Club Rugby registration opens Clubs wishing to play in the Ba Club Rugby Competition can download the registration form from the official Facebook page ‘2023 Ba Rugby Union’ – or email barugbyunion23@gmail.com. Deadline for registration is 29 April. The draw will be held on 30 April.
When you see the excitement of the fans who come to the games to cheer for their team, you can truly feel the energy surrounding Ba Rugby.