Fiji Helped By Man Upstairs

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday March 17, 2006

Will Swanton

WAISALE Serevi is packing his bag. Boots, socks, shorts, jumper, white tape, black pen. The legendary Fijian captain arrives at Telstra Dome and straps both wrists. He writes in large letters on the tape on his left wrist: "Phil - 4:13." When Serevi starts getting tired, when the old legs begin to ache, he reads those words. He reads them a lot because even the greats feel fatigue.

Serevi isn't reminding himself to meet some bloke called Phil just after four o'clock. Philippians 4:13 is a passage from the Bible. The 37-year-old, striving for his first gold medal at his third and last Commonwealth Games, flashed his note to self and said: "In the Bible, it says, 'I can do all things through Christ. He gives me strength'. That's what keeps me going."

Australia began their campaign with a 73-0 annihilation of Sri Lanka. The result meant nothing because Sri Lanka are minnows. Fiji fired, too. They scored after 45 seconds in the opening match of the tournament - and kept scoring all day.

Serevi is a magician. For ball skills, the Harlem Globetrotters are bland by comparison. One-handed flick-passes. No-look cut-outs. You name it, Serevi can do it. Fiji downed Canada 31-14 to begin a procession of predictable results which only came to an abrupt halt when Tonga upset South Africa 26-19.

"It would be good to get the gold ... for the people of Fiji," Serevi said.

His side huddle before every match to ask for the Lord's help. In their farewell church service at Suva, Reverend Apete Toko told them: "Pray for your lives from now onwards so God can boost your talent at blackout times, at those intricate moments while you're playing. We all have those moments. It is when you need divine powers to lift your game."

Powerhouses Australia, New Zealand, England and Fiji survived their early matches. The quarter-finals will be held today and the final tonight.

New Zealand began their campaign by downing Wales 35-10 and Namibia 41-7. England accounted for Cook Islands 35-5.

Australia's annihilation of Sri Lanka saw Wallabies winger Lote Tuqiri pummelling Sri Lankan players half his size. "Sri Lanka are obviously one of the poorer teams in the competition." he said.

"I felt sorry for them at the end, losing by that amount. They probably haven't got the resources or experience we've got. But it was good to get a win."

Tonga's Viliami Tu'akalau Moala scored the match-winner against South Africa with a 50m run down the left flank as the full-time siren was sounding. Tongan officials ran down the sideline with arms raised high, but Australian coach Glen Ella predicted South Africa could still end up contending for a medal.

"I've seen South Africa get beaten in the first round before and they've come back and contested the final," Ella said.