Future rugby stars on show in Nadroga

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Sunset Malolo’s Nacanieli Labalaba wins a line out against Tuva in the U19 grade at the Cuvu Collegian Rugby 7s Tournament in Sigatoka. Picture: REINAL CHAND

AN abundance of rugby talents were displayed in the first two days of the Cuvu Collegian Rugby 7s Festival held at Lawaqa Park in Sigatoka yesterday.

Hundreds of young players ranging from under-13 to U19 captivated the fans with rugby styles that Fijians are renowned for.

The competition has four different divisions which include under-13, U15, U17 and U19 with the open competition to start today.

Tournament organiser Tiko Matawalu said he was impressed with the level of talents displayed especially from the U13 boys.

“This is the first time to organise a tournament to include the U13,” he said.

“The last tournament we had the U15 as the lowest grade. There was interest generated in that year where parents and teams proposed to have the U13 tournament. And we could see the skills displayed at this level.”

Matawalu said such tournament would groom skillful and star rugby players in the near future.

“We believed more of this grassroots development is needed where rugby 7s is spread across Fiji.

“There is so much talents across the grades and they are using the same field as senior teams and on international level and if they are doing it at that level you can just imagine seven years down the line what they can bring back to Fiji rugby.

“We having the top two teams from this year’s competition gaining an automatic qualification to this year’s McDonald’s Coral Coast 7s so we could see the intensity of the competition.”

The open competition starts today.

Meanwhile, Cuvu Cavaliers won the U15 title while the Sigatoka Young Boys won the U17.

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