The University of the South Pacific (USP) men’s and women’s rugby teams dominated the competition at the Fiji University Sports Association (FUSA) Games held last week.
After a lapse of two years due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the FUSA games, previously known as the inter-tertiary games, were held with USP almost making a clean sweep in the sport of Rugby.
With a total of 22 sports played on the day, the USP men’s rugby team won both the 7s and 15s competition, whereas the women’s team won the 7s competition but due to a technical difficulty fell short and were awarded runners-up in the 15s category.
USP Women’s Rugby Captain, Lice Tikoinamuamua said before the three-day competition the camaraderie among the players was infectious and they had the aim of playing well and having fun, the win was a bonus for the team.
USP Rugby Coach Seremaia Waqanisau said they had two months to prepare their men’s team and a little over 2 weeks to prepare the women’s team for the competition.
“We had a good mix of players when we started preparations. For the women’s teams we had four local girls playing rugby for the first time and we also had three of our international students from Australia try rugby at the competition,” he added.
Mr Waqanisau said they plan to have both the men’s and women’s teams take a break and resume off season training in two weeks before joining Suva Rugby Union club games to continue to build their team.
“We also encourage those who are interested in joining the team to feel free to join us for training in the afternoons at the University sports grounds,” he said.
USP also managed to win in 10 other respective sporting events including the men’s touch rugby, men’s soccer, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s volleyball, men’s beach volleyball, women’s and mixed netball and men’s rugby league.
The USP Sports team will have a thanksgiving service this Sunday to acknowledge the achievement for their respective sporting bodies.
