Women’s rugby to feature at International Women’s Day event this Saturday at Sukuna Park
Women’s rugby to feature at International Women’s Day
The FRU in partnership with Fiji Women’s Rights Movement is inviting everyone to join us at Sukuna Park this Saturday to celebrate International Women’s Day and at the same time promote Women’s Rugby.
As women strive for empowerment, sport is one of the arenas that are used to emancipate themselves through challenging the traditional masculine/feminine dichotomy which has been associated with sport. Rugby even though a sport for everyone, here in Fiji, women’s rugby are still under represented in sport participation when compared to the male. There are possible reasons for those differences, some of which are social-cultural and some of which are institutional factors (eg media coverage, available role models, etc).
Our national women’s sevens team, the Telecom Fijiana do not even have a regular competitions at home but here they are being part of the top 16 teams competing in the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series. It proves we can also bring joy to the nation just like the men do on the rugby field.
The 2015 International Women’s Day, we would like to recognize the struggles our Fijiana players and management went through and highlight how rugby has impacted their lives. We also hope to increase women’s rugby awareness on the day.
FRU women’s development officer Vela Naucukidi encourages the whole family to come out in numbers and enjoy the programme. “We have parents that do not allow their daughters to play the sport and even some girls who have reservation but I would like you to come down to Sukuna Park on Saturday to find out more about women’s rugby.”
“It’s also interesting to note that it was Pio Bosco Tikoisuva, a male, who started women’s rugby in Fiji. He will be there to speak and answer queries from parents and players.” His daughter, Salote Tikoisuva was a former captain for the Fijiana 7s team. Current Fijiana player Jossie Gusuivalu will also share with us how she handles being a full time mother, a police woman and a national rugby rep. “We’ve also invited Naomi Roberts father to also share with us his experiences and challenges he went through as parent of a rugby player. Naomi played full back for the Wallaroos (Australian Women’s 15s team).”
Ms Naucukidi also revealed the difficulties she is facing in getting schools to allow the girls to play and she is inviting principals and schools boards if they have time to visit Sukuna Park this Saturday and hear from players, parents of the sport. “I’ve received emails from principals that say, rugby is only for boys even though there are a bunch of girls who wants to play and I urge them to please come down to the park hear it from those that had played the sport and also parents.”
Invitation has gone out to former Fijiana reps to be part of the programme and FRU Rugby development officers will be there to run Get Into Rugby games for the whole family. “We would like to thank Fiji Women’s Rights Movement for the opportunity to promote women’s rugby.”
The inclusion of rugby in the Olympics has also increase the interest amongst the girls. With the current performance of our national side, chances are very high to travel too Rio. The theme this year, “MAKE IT HAPPEN” go hand in hand with our campaign for the Rio Olympics. FRU hopes that by the end of the one day celebration parents will be reassured that rugby is a safe place for their daughters and they too can be involved as coaches, match officials and administrators.
Fiji Rugby Union is taking a huge step in supporting the drive to promote women’s rugby and have also included six schools, RSMS, BMS, Gospel, Suva Grammar, Cathedral and LDS rugby in the Rugby Legacy programme for the World Rugby Pacific Challenge. This is to help promote rugby to school girls.
Meanwhile, the FRU will also announce the final Telecom Fijiana team to the third leg of the World Rugby Women’s seven series to Atlanta at Sukuna Park this Saturday.