The next day for me was a real cultural experience.  From the hotel we drove some distance through terrain that was very hilly and covered in vegetation, to the rugby grounds that had been cleared and plowed flat.  The grounds had three secondary fields arranged around the main field that had permanent covered seating complete with concession stands and a P.A. system.

We ended up watching a game or two on the various fields before my new friend’s team played on the main field.  His team was sponsored by a cell phone company and their opponent was sponsored by the local McDonald’s restaurant.  The packed house sang “Old Macdonald” as part of the continuous cheering and singing that went on throughout the game.  For a country that doesn’t speak English it was strange to hear the old children’s rhyme.

I was struck by the passion shown both on the field and in the stands and at the level of play.  I was also struck by the sportsmanship and respect shown by the players for each other, for the officiating and for the game itself.  This was evident in the fact that although it is inherently a rough game, there was never any ill will shown by a player on either team.  At the end of the match, the players all shook hands and then came over to the stands to sit down for a brief ceremony in which the victorious team was recognized and a man of the match from each team declared.

What I found most interesting, other than the overall energy and passion the people clearly had for their sport, was the manner in which the man of the match award was received.  On this particular day, a member of the national team was on hand to present the award (the award itself appeared to be a certificate of some kind).  When the players came up to receive the honour, they shook hands, nodded and then sat down at the feet of the Fijian national team member facing away.  I asked my friend from the hotel why the player was doing this and he informed me that it was a sign of respect.

For a country that is a series of islands with a total population of about 850 000 people, it’s amazing the amount of international success that Fiji has had, especially in the 7’s game in which they’ve actually won the World Cup twice.  It was a real privilege for me to see first hand what a passion they have for the great sport of rugby in Fiji and how they’ve been able to manifest that passion in the success of their game on an international scale.  Passion coupled with sportsmanship and respect they have for the game is truly Sport At Its Best.

Recently I saw an international rugby 7’s tournament (each team plays with seven players) from Las Vegas.  It’s a really exciting format in that you can have a round robin tournament complete with a playoff round and championship game all in the span of a few days.  The games are only 15 minutes long and as you can imagine, it’s a pretty wide-open pace in which the momentum can change quickly, all the qualities that surely played a part in the inclusion of Rugby 7’s in to the Olympic program beginning in 2016.

Ever since I gave rugby a try in my last year of high school, I’ve been a fan of it in its various forms.  When my wife and I were in Australia in 2007, I really enjoyed watching the professional rugby there (both League and Union).  It was exciting to see the passion the Australians had for the sport (not dissimilar to hockey in Canada) but it didn’t really compare to what we saw when we stopped in Fiji on the way back to Canada.  Before leaving Australia, a friend told me that there really isn’t a place in the world as crazy about rugby as Fiji and that they have hundreds of players who are all big, strong and fast enough to play internationally.   He also told me that every young Fijian man plays.

If you follow @sportatitsbest on twitter, you’ll recognize this photo taken in Fiji ’07.

The first week in Fiji we spent at one of the many island resorts.  It wasn’t a huge island but I would guess there were close to a hundred guests and a few dozen staff members.  I first started to get a sense of how passionate the people were about the sport when in the middle of the day, the entire male staff gathered in the centre of the island and ran rugby drills for over an hour.  They did this every day that we were there.

At the end of the week we returned to the city of Nadi (near the airport) for a few days before continuing home to Calgary.  When we arrived at our hotel, I talked to the man behind the desk and told him that I had heard that every Fijian man plays rugby.  Without even smiling to indicate that this could have been an exaggeration, he informed me that although he was injured, his team was playing the next day and that I was welcome to come with him to the rugby grounds.

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