Brisbane City whitewash
I WAS speechless as I watched our Drua ground Brisbane City.
It was like watching the All Blacks playing cat and mouse with the opposition.
I made sure all my errands were met and at 3pm the focus turned to the match, which was shown live on Sky! City caused a few dramas in the early part of the match, but once the Drua gained momentum there was no stopping.
My neighbour joined me when he heard the noise coming from the sitting room and we cheered our hearts out for our boys who were superb.
What impressed me was the support play and fitness level of our warriors who stepped up the accelerator despite the scorching heat.
The Drua showed explosive power, flair and brilliant off-loading and handling skills. I loved the patient buildup from the Drua who avenged last year’s 45-36 loss in round 1 in Brisbane.
The support carriers were terrific and so was the ability of the Drua to defend our line with some hard-hitting tackles that floored the opposition.
Even our Fijian brothers in the City outfit — Emori Waqa and Moses Sorovi and the likes of Korczyk, Hunt and Cooper — gave up and withered and ran out of steam and ideas.
Unfortunately as the heat from the Sugar City intensified, City’s communication and set pieces phased out and the visitors had a mountain of work to do. Brisbane City was guilty of poor defence and the visitors were caught off-guard with the quick recycles and refreshing, unbelievable and outstanding team effort.
Furthermore, hats off to the Drua for starting off fast and executing the set pieces well although there were a few blemishes during the scrums and line-outs.
The whole team played as a unit and I must accord my appreciation to Seruvakula for the efforts put in to make the Drua competitive.
Finally, I hope Baber was in Lautoka to pencil Lomani, Veitokani, Kurumudu, Reece, Waqatabu and Radrodro in the 7s team.
These guys engineered the moves so well that they should not have problems adjusting to 7s.
Baber, remember that the ‘Sledgehammer’ Sau was a product of this very Drua side.
I conclude by wishing our boys all the best as they travel overseas to play defending champions Queensland and Sydney Rays, a combination of last year’s Sydney Rays and Greater Sydney Rams.
Rajnesh Ishwar Lingam
Nadawa, Nasinu
Land and sugar
A WHILE back I noticed an advertisement for people to utilise their land for growing very fast maturing trees.
Said trees were to be cut down after about two years and then fed into a boiler system to produce electricity.
Well now we have an ample stock of feed for this system, they call it sugar cane.
Why waste time spending huge amounts of money putting this through the sugar mills, making a financial loss, getting huge subsidies, loans it will have difficulty paying back, and let’s face it hardly making a positive contribution to foreign exchange.
In fact, the industry is close to a dead duck, better to burn the cane in a proper electricity producing environmentally friendly plant rather than polluting the air burning it in the fields.
Look at the positives, Fiji would have to purchase sugar on the world market.
It would be expensive, the population would rapidly lose its sweet tooth and the hospital surgeons would spend less time cutting off rotten diabetic limbs and get on with doing something far more useful.
Yes, I have been a diabetic for 22 years now and it is a miserable disease to live with.
Sound advice is given out all the time about how to avoid getting it, or how to manage it better, but does anybody take any notice? How did I get it, too much alcohol and a high BMI.
Allan Loosley
Tavua
Constitution Day
FRIDAY, September 7 dawned and I was up and about like any other day.
Then someone told me that it was a public holiday.
I just raised my eyebrows and put aside the thought of going into town to do some window shopping and went about doing what I usually did. Oh yes, I have done lots of window shopping.
Then I found out that it was Constitution Day, and I wondered if it was a celebration, a commemoration or just another day for those who work to stay home and have a long weekend and do what they usually do on long weekends.
But my usual first each morning is to read the Fiji Times Online, I do it religiously.
Then I washed the clothes and did a bit of cleaning up around the house.
On Facebook I wished all my friends a wonderful Constitution Day. I got some unusual remarks, which I cannot reprint.
But Constitution Day has come and gone and so many people I met in Waiyavi don’t know what it is about.
One chap said, “Aaa, na cava ya?” (What’s that?) Anyway having said that, I returned home and friends came and we sat and had a few basins of grog. By the way, I have lots of windows that I bought during my window shopping sprees.
Allen Lockington
Kava Place,
Waiyavi, Lautoka
Radio language
THE iTaukei language received another hammering from the iTaukei radio announcer who was on air for a certain iTaukei station from 6pm on the evening of September 7, 2018.
When asking members of the public to name a singer of a particular song, the announcer used a mixture of iTaukei and a couple of English language words in his question: Vaka guess guess taka mada mai o cei laga na sere o ya.
This was not the only time such talk was used —but it was a glaring example of how careless perople are with one’s language. Do not forget one’s language is one’s cultural identity too.
The radio is a powerful game changer and announcers must be extra careful when on air.
William Rosa
Tavua
Savusavu police
TO Mr Urai… please re-read my letter and understand fully.
What’s the harm to give a cuppa to our hardworking officers.
They are on the beat 24/7. Neither I offered them tea neither they asked for any. They came in three minutes to attend to drunkards and not only one but five came.
That too at 2am.
A. SHARIFF SHAH
Savusavu
Road humps
THE recent advice from the FRA was that rope humps erected by villagers to slow traffic are illegal acts.
On the same note, are rope humps by the police force legal?
The other day we all were busy celebrating Constitution Day with friends and family. Surprisingly Vitogo Police Post erected traffic control measures on Kings Rd using cones and double thick rope humps that made every piece of the car rattle.
Aren’t the laws of Fiji equal for all?
Or are we living the satire of the book “Animal Farm”where some are more equal than others.
Kamlesh Arya
Lautoka
Teacher issues
DANIEL Urai has a valid point.
How come from collective agreement the minister has changed it to an individual contract.
This should be contested in a court of law.
I do not know why the unions have not taken this path earlier on. It is your responsibility to engage in legal experts and get out of this conundrum.
Look at Australia and New Zealand unions and learn from them since the Fijian education department is implementing a lot of changes by looking at these countries.
Dellas Singh
Valebasoga, Labasa
High beer price
WITH the high price of beer, I believe cocaine, ice and marijuana are cheaper alternatives.
Dan Urai
Lautoka
Bank and supermarket
WHAT is the difference between a bank and a supermarket?
During busy periods supermarkets do not have empty cashier booths.
Allen Lockington
Kava Place, Waiyavi,
Lautoka
COP23 chair
IT has been reported that the Prime Minister and chair of COP23 will be handing over the presidency at the end of the year. Have we learned anything? Have we achieved anything during our term as chair? These are rhetorical questions.
Allen Lockington
Kava Place, Waiyavi,
Lautoka
Fiji Drua campaign
Fiji Drua has exposed the poor level of the Australian rugby competition.
No wonder the Wallabies cannot perform at the highest level when compared with the New Zealand All Blacks. While we are happy with the result by our team, we must see how they progressed further.
Not that after NRC, the players go back and await the 2019 season to play for their respective unions in the local rugby competition.
The reality is that if we call the Flying Fijians team, our overseas players will still be the first choice while we hope 50 per cent of our Drua team will make the cut.
There is so much money and interested, rugby like-minded people out there in Fiji who would be interested to come together and throw in money for a super rugby team bid.
FRU must not directly run a local super rugby franchise.
They must sell the franchise out to people who can run it as a successful business for the sake of a professional setup that guarantees lucrative careers for our local talents.
We need decision makers who can put money in the right place. I believe a $2-3 million Super Rugby match hosted in Suva annually is putting money in the wrong place.
I believe the $1m bid for rugby 7s and a proposed $18m Prince Charles Park makeover is putting money in the wrong place. Our rugby 7s team international successes and Olympic 7s successes have already marketed Fiji as a sporting powerhouse. I believe they are doing more destination branding at a combined team coach and coaching staff budget of about $500k compared with a $30m Tourism Fiji investment to promote Fiji as a destination.
We are not putting our in-house in order first before committing to such action.
We have the opportunity to create a multimillion dollar sporting industry in Fiji by using our local resources and invest in our talent. Who else will feel for our sporting industry and our local players’ welfare than ourselves.
While we prepare for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, no one in Fiji will be 100 per cent confident to say Fiji can win.
Why? You can’t compare an All Blacks team which plays together for the past three years since the last Rugby World Cup compared with the Flying Fijians that will be put together in two months to play a Rugby World Cup.
It is just uncomparable! Evidence to prove: Fiji 7s plays together all year round and they do wonders.
The same rugby structure could be replicated to other sports. All sports are struggling to be out there and try and compete at the international stage.
I believe the sports industry in Fiji is only driven by the “passion” of players and supporters for their respective sports. There is no career out there.
I believe that is a fact.
Biu Tadranu
Waqadra, Nadi
