A little island flavour

The Cooks Islands team, remembered most for giving Fiji a fright in the Pacific Cup, shot itself in the leg before flying to Suva. The cause ; a ferocious, energy-sap ping trial in Rarotonga a few days before the tournament.

So intense was the battle to win places in the team, five players suffered injuries serious enough to miss the trip.

There was a badly dislocated shoulder, a broken arm and leg and several other broken bones, according to team manag er John Taripo.

The intensity did have something to do with the fact that one team of 15 players was composed of new Zealand Cook Islanders and the of local players.

The Pacific Cup itself did not see so many injuries in a single game. That the incident happened just before the tourna ment added to the damage, although the players were able to laugh over it later.

The team was totally united against Fiji though, and the bunch of unknown play ers won a lot of admirers for its heroic performance before going down 11-19 .

After a 10-17 setback against the New Zealand Rotumans in its opening game, it was generally thought the Cooks would

be easy meat for Fiji.

But in a fast, see-sawing match, the visi tors gave as good as they received both in attack and defense. Fiji was desperate and losing until the final 15 minutes when relentless pressure resulted in two tries.

“The team that took field against Fiji played with their hearts,” saidTaripo.“l think Fiji underestimated us.’

Fiji scored first but the Cooks replied through centre Tiri Tua ,who burst from dummy half to equalise before a John Sekene drop goal gave them a 5-4 half time lead. In the second spell Fiji snatched the lead again with a try by Penrith recruit Noa Nayacakalou to lead 8-5, but the Cooks replied through centre NgereTariu .

Backed by the home crowd, and proba bly aware the extent of damage a loss would inflict on its reputation, Fiji redou bled efforts to score to more tries for a hard-fought win.

According to Taripo, their disappointing start against the Rotumans and the pep talk that followed set the platform for one of the most exciting games of the tournament. ■

The Cook Islands Rugby League cultural group liven up the games