TIME management was the biggest lesson learnt by Noco, Rewa native Serupepeli Vularika during his time with the Vodafone Flying Fijians.
For someone who attended a school that was hardly known for rugby Assemblies of God High School, his rugby talent started to nourish at the Lelean Memorial School academy in Davuilevu.
From LMS, Vularika played a bit of rugby in Nadi with the Airport Rugby Club before he returned home to Suva to play in an unknown rugby club Vunikoro. With some game in provincial level with the Rewa under-20 side and the Nadi U20 team, he tried sevens rugby with the Redrock team in 2011 and in 2014, he joined the National Fire Authority’s rugby team.
He slowly rose up the ranks and made the Suva Rugby Union team before he finally found himself in the Telecom Fiji Warriors team last year.
“But all those years, I never knew the importance of time, because we would be told to meet at 8am and our training would only start two hours later at 10,” Vularika said.
“Now that I am in the national team, I have realised the importance of time management, training, resting well, eating the right food for my body, this is apart from what I learn in my positional play when on the rugby pitch,” he added.
Making his debut at the Pacific Nations Cup against Tonga from the bench and started in the first XV against Samoa last weekend, Vularika said he had come to also realise how the small nitty-gritty details of how to do things were important to help someone grow well in the game.
Having the chance to now train with veterans like Seremaia Bai and Sunia Koto, with players that have been with the Flying Fijians for some time now such as Vereniki Goneva and Campese Ma’afu, Vularika labels it as a blessing to his career.
“They’re always very encouraging and I’m grateful to all of them for helping me through this process, today my aim is just to continue to move forward, to be able to get a contract and make the 2019 Rugby World Cup team.”
Vularika could just be another big name from the province of Rewa such as former Flying Fijians captain Ro Alivereti Doviverata to make it big on the rugby arena.
