Rising Fijian rugby league player Vuate Karawalevu is living his dream at a young age after being called to join the Vodafone Fiji Bati squad for the world cup campaign.
From playing club rugby in Fiji, to the Kaiviti Silktails in the Ron Massey Cup and the Roosters in the Jersey Flagg competition, the 21-year-old former Marist Brother High School student will certainly make the most of his experience in England – a building block for his future endeavours.
The move is yet another milestone for the winger, who is in his second season of rugby league after switching codes from rugby union when he joined the Silktail’s elite development pathway program in Suva late last year.
In sevens appearances for the Roosters, he has scored six tries – boasting an average running metres of 125 at each game.
Karawalevu says he owes it all to the development work done at the Silktails camp.
“It’s a totally new experience (Bati call-up) for me, especially coming in at a young age. I didn’t expect this to happen this early but I thank God, he had planned this all out for me and it happened this year,” he said.
“All credit goes to the Kaiviti Silktails. They have a really good development program that helps us rugby league players to be better on and off the field. I think that was the main reason we developed so quickly. Stephen O’Driscoll, coach Wes Naiqama and Petero Civoniceva really helped us to develop properly to get to the next stage. I think that’s how I got to where I am today.”
After joining the team camp in Rochdale last Thursday, Karawalevu was thrown into the deep end and made his debut against England last Sunday (Fiji time) – a warm-up match to the Bati world cup opener against Australia later this week.
“It was a awesome game, first time to gel in with the boys. I think it’s our first game together coming into camp and I think we still have to find that right combination. I know once we do that we’ll be fine,” he said.
“It’s been good to have everyone on board before we start our campaign for this year’s RLWC. I’m looking forward to enjoying it with the boys, especially the senior players.
“The boys are ready. We know that we’ll take it to Australia and we’ll see on the day how the outcome goes and hope for the best.”
The side takes on Australia on October 15 at at Headingley Stadium in Leeds.
The side faces Italy seven days later at Kingston Park, Newcastle before wrapping up the pool games against Scotland on October 29 at Totally Wicked Stadium, St Helens.
