Have a Jo hero has been to Helmand and back
COMMONWEALTH GAMES Soldier still fighting for Scotland
Jo Nayacavou reckons that Scottish rugby saved him.
The serving soldier was about to be deployed on a second tour of Afghanistan when he was given permission to train with the national Sevens side instead.
That meant he missed the roadside bomb blast in Helmand Province that killed three soldiers from his regiment.
Five years later the Fijian-born Scot is still serving his country on and off the battlefield.
At 32, he’s the oldest player in Scotland’s Sevens squad competing for Commonwealth glory this week.
Nayacavou, who left the Pacific Islands for a career in the army in 2008, said: “I was the first Fijian to represent Scotland in any rugby age group or level and that’s all down to the regiment.
“One of the recruiters was a rugby guy – all I remember is the black hackle army uniform and he was a colour sergeant. He said: ‘If you guys want to play rugby come join my regiment.’
“That convinced me to come join the Royal Regiment of Scotland.”
Nayacavou spent six months on tour in Helmand as part of Operation Herrick XIII in 2010 and 2011. The lance corporal with 2 SCOTS, the Royal Highland Fusiliers, said: “One of our mates lost both his legs but was still grateful he survived. We were lucky.”
Fate then intervened while Nayacavou was on a driving course down in Yorkshire ahead of an imminent return to the violent Afghan territory in 2013.
Edinburgh favourite Netani Talei phoned to ask if he could train with Scotland Sevens and his of f icers arranged permission.
Jo said: “I was basically Netani’s next-door neighbour back in Fiji. We grew up together.
“Phil Greening, the Scotland coach, had asked him: ‘Is there a Fijian you can ask to come train with us?’ “When Netani phoned I lit up, I actually lit up. I had to hold it together because there were other boys there and I didn’t want to make them feel bad. “Of course I was keen to do it but I had to communicate with my bosses to pull me outou of going away. “That was it, my starting journey jou into Scotland sevens. I likeli to say that Scotland rugby ru saved me.” Nayacavou doesn’t say that lightlylig – he still wonders what couldco have happened if he’d gonego to Helmand. A blast killedki three soldiers and injured in six af ter their armoureda vehicle was bombed on patrol. Jo said: “The boys who passed away were just unfortunate because there were a few more guys in the same vehicle but they survived.
“I was back home when the news reached me and I was like: ‘It could have been me.’ But luckily I was here.”
Nayacavou grew up an only child in the tiny village of Navatuyaba and always believed he’d be wearing black not blue on the big stage.
Final trials for the Fiji Under-21s at 15s was as far as he got before deciding life off the Pacific Islands was the best way to f inancial ly support his family with future wife Vasit i pregnant with daughter Adi Unaisi.
Asked if he feared his rugby career was over when he left Fiji in 2008, he said: “I still had hope, I still had it in me.
“I was like, ‘ I’ve still got a chance to play for Scotland if I’m good enough.’”
In fact, he’d only been in Scotland a couple of weeks before he was on a pitch for Penicuik, where he lives in quarters 500 metres from the barracks with his wife and two kids.
Even swapping grass for sand in Helmand didn’t deter him.
He said: “At the main base, Bastion, it was safe. The Americans were there, Canadians, every other national soldiers.
“Once we’d done our admin we’d meet up in the afternoons, four o’clock, sun was still up – then boom, we’d just play touch rugby for hours.
“When we started going out we had a team of 12 that went away for six weeks manning a tiny base with the locals – it was a good experience but tiring.” Nayacavou may be the oldest in John Dalziel’s 13-man squad but his sense of humour wouldn’t suggest it.
He revealed Scotland’s rugby sevens stars have become household names in a tiny village thousands of miles away.
“The weird thing is they know all the names of the boys,” he said.
“So when I phone home they’re like, ‘ How’s Fleming, oh how’s Robertson, or how’s Wight, or Lowe’. That’s how big fans they are of sevens rugby.”
And he has big plans for this weekend in Gold Coast before the rest of his squadmates arrive from a World Series tourney in Hong Kong that he missed while nursing an injury.
He joked: “Imagine if something comes up that you have to go to – like a visit to a school – and I’m the only guy there.
“I might tell them I’m with the volleyball team or basketball. I’d like to think I’m very good at volleyball.”
As a Games debut looms, though, he’s serious about not just doing Team Scotland proud but the much larger one who have given him the time to train full-time with the sevens – the army.
Almost five years on from his first cap he said: “There are many in the army who wanted to do the same thing as me – there’s loads of talent there – but I was the lucky one.
“There was a window and if they hadn’t released me to come away and do that I don’t think I’d be part of this Commy Games. I think I’m just blessed in a way that this path was laid out for me.”