Incurable romantics attracted to Fiji

IT was a "home" fixture for Fiji yesterday in the Rugby League World Cup.

Petero Civoniceva

IT was a "home" fixture for Fiji yesterday, an occasion when the links between an old Lancashire mill town and a tiny group of Pacific islands were raucously and loudly celebrated by a World Cup win for the "Bati" in deepest Rochdale.

Fifty-one years after the first Fijians landed from their sun-kissed paradise on the rain-lashed Pennine slopes of the industrial northwest, four generations of those pioneers, who form the largest Fijian enclave outside London, celebrated all but guaranteeing the third quarter-final spot as a result of beating Ireland 32-14 in a virtual decider in group A.

The two teams next face Australia and England, Ireland's burden on Saturday. England has the three Burgess brothers; Fiji had the Sims siblings in their pack, Ashton, Tariq and Korbin. The fearsome trio, in common with most of their teammates, are steeled in the NRL.

Spotland Stadium was en fete for the tournament coming to town and the chance to cheer their adopted Fijians.

There was traditional Fijian fare fair mixed with Irish stew at The Flying Horse hotel. The last time the ground was anywhere near its 10,000 capacity was for a Boxing Day derby between Rochdale Hornets and Oldham 24 years ago. A few hundred usually turn up to watch the Hornets but the lure of the Bati in the World Cup forced a sellout.

Every World Cup has a fixture for incurable romantics and for rugby league's version this was it. Rochdale's love affair with Fiji began in 1958, when Arthur Walker, the Hornets chairman, was struck watching a Fiji rugby union game while with the touring Great Britain league side, not just by the thundering leviathans playing but their speed and daring.

It took three years but following relaxation of Fijian tribal laws forbidding emigration until the 1960s, Joe Levula and Orisi Dawai found themselves their country's first professional league players 10,000 miles from home. Coming from a nation under British rule until 1970, they were treated as celebrities in Rochdale. The club placed an advert in The Fiji Times for more players, with Liatia Ravouvou and Voate Drui, the one survivor of those Fijian pioneers, arriving in 1962 after he left his job at a sugar plantation in Nadi.

Despite the upheaval, it was an easy decision for Drui, 18, a front-row forward, who met and married his wife, Dorothy, in 1964.

"My first impression was the cold. You don't get snow in Fiji," he said. "But we were so welcomed by the community in Rochdale. We were all very happy living together in Milnrow Road. We would pack each game out with people coming to watch us, especially girls. We came to England, bringing the name of Fiji with us and showing people who we are."

Mike Ratu created a Hornets dynasty when he joined a Fijian recruitment drive by the British Army, turning up to play for Rochdale in 1965.

"Rochdale was more important than London for us. Some even thought Rochdale was the capital," said Ratu, whose son and grandson played for the Hornets, who the Bati walloped 78-0 in their warm-up game.

Led by Petero Civoniceva, the former Australia prop, they established an initial advantage with tries by Akuila Uate and Kevin Naiqama. Tyrone McCarthy pulled a try back, before Tariq Sims and Uate sealed victory in rounding off moves that had their proud forebears on their feet.

THE TIMES