Fiji’s ugliestregby brawl

By Paula Tagivetaua

Skirmishes in rugby games are accepted world-wide as release of tension. In Fiji its is part and parcel of the game, as in other parts of the rugby world but what happened at the National Stadium on September 23 isolated and plunged Fiji rugby back several hundred years.

The Fiji Rugby Football Union Cup final between Suva and Naitasiri North had all the build-up of a Test match. It was to be Naitasiri North’s crowning glory for the season. A good crowd of 10,000 spec tators hugged the Laucala bowl in antici pation of one of the best games of the sea son and it started on a fast and furious pace with the highlanders sticking to a plan to run the heavier Suva pack off its feet.

Naitasiri North was no doubt the team of the year.

They started club competition in March when other unions were concentrating on sevens and their provincial team’s FRFU Cup results showed the improvement and development that was taking place in the hills.

If Naitasiri North had lost honourably, there would have been big write-ups about their improvement but a bunch of reserve players and spectators dashed all hopes and aspirations and brought a blanket of shame down on the proud province of tra ditional warriors.

It was 10 minutes from fulltime and Suva was leading 13-3, when Suva centre Lemeki Koroi and his opposite, Peniasi Moroca, who came in as a replacement, had a difference of opinion on the sideline after a stinging Koroi hit. Koroi is origi nally from Naitasiri.

Players from both sides stepped in to quell the exchange between the two kins men. Several punches were traded among the hot-headed players but everything was getting back to normal and the game was about to resume when all hell broke loose.

Naitasiri North reserves on the grand stand sideline rushed in and started punch ing anything not in the black uniform of Naitasiri North. Partisan spectators on the embankment, crazed by the blood-call, jumped over the fence, ripped out bill boards and flag poles to use as weapons and flung themselves on the Suva players, some of whom stood their ground but were overwhelmed by the tide of fury.

The fact that they came with a lot of promise and expectations and to find that they could not budge the experienced Suva pack frustrated and melted the Naitasiri

North players’ and fans’ composure and discipline.

Suva players were punched, kicked and jabbed by flag poles as they lay on the ground by the mob which numbered around 300.

Suva first-five Apisai Donu and locks Aisake Nadolo and loane Savenaca were hit on the head by beer bottles smuggled in past security guards at the gate. Donu required stitches to two wounds on the back of his head and 10 stitches to a gash where someone stabbed him with the jagged stub on the cheek.

The referee Sairusi Ravula was punched by spectators and hit on the head

by the PVC pipe used as a flagpole. He was cut on the head and visibly shaken after the ordeal inside the locked control room.

The impact of the running brawl left several dignitaries and rugby executives shell-shocked and red-faced at the VIP

Lounge.

Apologies and scapegoats were sought as Naitasiri North looked for a way out but video evidence was very clear and pictures in the dailies identified assailants and many wondered why FRFU’s disciplinary committee said they would need up to three weeks to come up with a decision, The shameful incident evoked calls for

The scene that marred Fiji’s friendly reputation locally and overseas. The Refer

a complete ban on Naitasiri North union by several union officials. The Fiji Rugby Referees Association slapped a five-year ban on Naitasiri North and Fijians over seas, especially in rugby-mad New Zealand hung their heads in shame in pub lic at the incident which was labelled bar baric by overseas media.

Fiji’s rugby and public image was tar nished.

Fiji Visitors Bureau chief Isimeli Bainimara said reports of the brawl which were carried on Cable Network News

(CNN), British Broadcasting Corporation

(BBC), Denmark Broadcasting Corporation and Australian Associated

Press (AAP) through several countries in the world, left a black mark on Fiji’s attraction values. Police and FRFU’s disci plinary committee worked to identify the offenders.

A Nadera man from outside Suva was charged and appeared in court. He asked the court for time to reconcile with the ref eree he punched but Ravula did not want any reconciliation and wanted the court to sentence the man.

FRFU was put in a delicate situation. It had to happen when Fiji rugby was on the rebuilding process and when a tour of Wales and Ireland in October was to help put Fiji back on the map.

Western Samoan rugby fans and offi cials said they had been right to say that something of that nature would have hap pened if Fiji had lost to Manu Samoa in Nadi in their 1994 Three Nations match.

Fiji was quick to deny any possibility of Samoans being hustled in Nadi but the National Stadium incident compounded the Samoans’ fears and now overseas teams, including the Tongans who have a good relationship with Fiji, will have to ask for tighter security or no tours at all in future.

Frenchman Frank Boivert, coach of the US national women’s rugby team, said he had run as Ravula did in France some years back and that brawls were not uncommon in France.

“But what happened at the stadium was not rugby. That’s what you see happen in European soccer on television. I lay the blame on management and the reserve players of Naitasiri. If they had not gone in, there would not have been a mob attack.”

Naitasiri North rugby secretary Viliame Kanatabua blamed the crowd for inciting the brawl and making it worse by joining in.

“Our players played a good game. I am disappointed but the crowd is to blame.”

Kanatabua missed the part where his reserves ran onto the field and started

punching Suva players.

Police inspector of operations Kisoko Cagituivei said 30 officers were deployed at Laucala for the match and they could not do anything at that time.

“The best we could do was try and stop the brawl. If we had made arrests, it would have been worse.”

FRFU secretary Sialeni Vuetaki said Suva was awarded the game but Suva lost Donu, Suva’s first-choice goal-kicker, for the important Benson & Hedges Cup chal lenge against Nadi six days later.

FRFU must discipline the offenders.

Tevita Ratuva, FRFU’s executive adminis trator, said they were liable only for the union, its players and officials. This is a definite case where they have to answer for the actions of people who are under the FRFU umbrella.

The police can handle the members of the public who chipped in but FRFU must discipline the offenders to prevent any rep etition of the barbaric actions of the Naitasiri side. ■

ties to escape from a violent mob. Picture by; ARIN CHANDRA.