Harina Erasito

One of the seven apprentices in the first Fiji Rugby Women’s Academy wants to change girls’ perspective on the sport.

Former Natabua High School student Harina Erasito has been playing rugby for the last four years.

She was first spotted by her high school Coach Lionel Danford at Natabua, while she was in year 10 in 2015.

That same year, Erasito attended the Fiji under 18 girls’ rugby 7s trials for the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa and she made the team.

But Erasito didn’t go with the team because she was 15 years old and was considered to be underage at the time.

Her first rugby club was the Nadi Aviators which she joined in 2018 and she featured in the Coral Coast 7s the same year as well as this year.

Now she is part of the first women’s academy and the 19-year-old says more girls should take up the sport.

“This is something that I want to let other girls get into as well like I’ve noticed a lot of girls define rugby as a hard sport but for me it’s not because it’s a passion and a talent that God has given me”.

The academy players will come together twice a month as part of Fiji Rugby’s women’s development pathway, while the FRU will also continue to search for new recruits throughout the country.