Ratu Pasikali Naevo without a doubt would have gone on to don the national jumper, says Natabua High School teacher Ratu Raikiwasa Loanakadavu, who guided the school’s Under-18 rugby side to their historic Deans under-18 semi-final last year.
Ratu Pasikali was a Year 13 student of the Lautoka-based secondary school who according to reports collapsed during a training session last week and passed away at Lautoka Hospital on Sunday.
According to Loanakadavu, the budding star of Fiji Rugby, a Year 13 student of Natabua High School who played as a lock, was an instrumental player that led them to the semi-final of Fiji secondary school’s top rugby competition.
“I am 100 per cent sure that he would have made it to the national team just like his father Api Naevo and uncle Semisi Naevo.
“I am sure, he would have reached a level that would have enabled him to represent the Fijian Drua as expressed by his cousin and current Fijian Drua player Ratu Meli Derenalagi,” he said.
Loanakadavu said he could not believe the news that one of their students and someone like Ratu Pasikali had passed away.
“I talked to him briefly last week when he came to school and I had a very hard time to absorb the news of his tragic death.
“He was not only a very humble boy, but he listened to instructions given to him in training and was very hardworking as well.
“He led by example and had a good knowledge of the game. He was our ball winner in the line-outs and was also very instrumental in the scrums and set-piece play.”
He said Ratu Pasikali was a player who stood out from the rest and that rugby was in his blood.
“When he came into the Natabua under-18 squad after winning the Skipper under-19 championship with Nadi, we could see immediate changes in the squad.
“He always made sure that his team moved forward.”
He was also part of the Fiji schoolboys team that toured New Zealand last year.
