Apakuki Tavodi

From Lautoka’s sugarcane fields to playing at the New South Wales Ron Massey Cup competition, Apakuki Tavodi will once again lead the Fiji Kava Kaiviti Silktails team.

The Burenitu, Nalawa in Ra native made a choice to play for the Burenitu Cowboys last year, despite the financial constraints.

With the help of his teammates, Tavodi had to cut cane to earn their fare to play at the Vodafone Cup.

[Source: Kaiviti Silktails]

He says the team defied all odds and taking on some of the big guns to make competition.

“We had a meeting and the boys said how about we cut sugarcane and all the money we receive from sugarcane we just pay the bus which is $700 to $800.”

The team defied all odds and made it to the Vodafone Cup taking on some of the big guns in the competition.

The 25-year-old adds it was the bond in the team that kept him from giving up.

“It was the bond that we took into cutting sugarcane and sometimes we are cutting sugarcane, the sun is hot and it rain suddenly, but the heart and gut from the boys,that is where we got our bonding from.”

Tavodi has been part of the Silktails Elite Development Pathway program and is a clear testament of its success.

From the Vodafone Cup, now Tavodi has progressed to the Kaiviti Silktails squad for the second year in a row.

The Silktails will be part of the Ron Massey cup competition where they will take on the Burleigh Bears on February 19th in their first warm-up match.