Just in: The Colonel, Kava, and Scuba are inside The Reds. In Fiji, Rugby Is Always Exciting
Just in: The Colonel, Kava, and Scuba are inside The Reds. In Fiji, Rugby Is Always Exciting
One of the best rugby tours to Fiji is an unforgettable experience, but don’t mistake it for a vacation in a paradise with palm trees. A legendary Queensland Reds player combined the spirit of the holidays with rugby, and the result is still a beloved tour story. Later on, more on that.
Although the Reds’ matchup with the Fijian Drua in Suva on Saturday may seem recent, there have been connections to Queensland’s trip of Fiji for almost 60 years. One of the great things about Super Rugby Pacific is that they have been rejuvenated in the middle of such exuberant crowds of Fijians who love the game of rugby.
This week, Reds head coach Les Kiss had a brilliant insight.
“The Drua have a fantastic home record and one of the most breathtaking settings with the Fijian crowd,” Kiss remarked.
“We’re excited to make that lovely noise, handle it, and take on this really difficult task.”
A youthful Bruce Brown was making his debut at prop for Queensland in 1965 during a historic five-game tour of Fiji, which was coached by the late Bob Templeton. Fantastic centre Bob Honan, who represented Australia in rugby and league, remembered the quick-witted Brothers winger Doug Ryan who was part of the tour.
According to what Honan once told me, “Doug was the smallest winger ever seen in Fiji where his opponents all seemed the size of Jo Levula at six-foot-two.”
“I’ve never seen him run so much faster or dive for the line so far out, so he must have been scared stiff.” The problem was that he used the in-and-out to score some excellent tries.
The Reds were in for a harsh awakening when they made a comeback in 1983, led by captain Andrew Slack.
The Reds were overwhelmed 48-24 by a 15-man cyclone wearing white Fijian jerseys, in one of the most astounding exhibitions of running rugby I have seen in my more than 40 years of covering the sport. With players like Tony Shaw, Brendan Moon, Chris Roche, Stan Pilecki, Slack, Andy McIntyre, Peter Grigg, and others, that 1983 Reds team was stacked with Wallabies.
When they ran wild in front of a crowded Suva stadium alongside fullback Severo Koroduadua and No. 8 Esala Teleni, they were no match.
Not to be outdone, Coach Templeton called for extra training the next day on the grassy paddock next to the airstrip.
To assist fellow halfback Peter Lavin in honing his blindside chip kick, “Tempo” enlisted the expertise of tour rookie Paul Johnston. Templeton was so infuriated by the misfires that he ordered them to pack it in and come back in the afternoon.
“Sorry, I can’t,” young Johnston mentally calculated.At two, I can scuba dive. Luckily, Templeton’s blood pressure wasn’t taken at that precise moment.
In 1983, Greg Martin was a simple 19-year-old on his first tour from Queensland to Fiji. Thankfully, he made his Reds debut in the subsequent midweek game at Lautoka. Fullback Martin recalls, “I felt I’d been given a great honour by rooming with the great Stan Pilecki on my first tour.”
“I discovered the opposite. Stan’s cigarette lighter would click four or five times a night so he could light up and fill the room with smoke, so rookie tour members were sacrificed to be his roommates. It was also Michael Lynagh’s first tour as a young man. When he began to sip away at a welcome and team-building event, he had no idea what kava was.
The legal “high” had left him giggling like a child, euphoric and with a numb bottom lip. The customary welcoming drink is kava root, filtered into a bowl of warm water.
Many sides have failed because they were tricked into playing a game similar to the Fijians’ art of ball juggling. Keeping to a more structured approach and never stopping fighting is always the best course of action.
Senior prop Andy McIntyre led Queensland past Fiji 34–9 in Suva in 1988. “I recall it because the next day, Colonel Rabuka invited (backrower) Brendan Nasser and me to a military base for lunch,” McIntyre remarked.
Only the year before, Rabuka had launched a coup. The topic of conversation at lunch was rugby rather than politics because he was a young Sitiveni Rabuka who played in the Test pack for Fiji.
Rabuka, the prime minister of Fiji at the moment, was in Ballymore recently supporting the Fijiana Drua in the Buildcorp Super Rugby Women’s championship game.
From the military base to the airport, we took a taxi. The driver of the cab blew a tire, but he drove the final kilometer on the metal rim out of concern for getting us there on time, according to McIntyre.
A rugby visit of Fiji is an experience not to be missed if you get the chance. Having them back on the schedule is a wonderful thing.
