The Ba Rugby Union have received a boost to their new Ba Tikina Championships Competition for the Men’s Division as Ba Industries Limited (BIL) signed a ground-breaking sponsorship for the next three years.
The competition will see the eight Tikina teams of Ba compete for the Ba Industries Cup under the slogan Tough as Nails!
BIL Chairman Vinod S Patel hailed the sponsorship as an important day in the 140-year-long history of rugby in Ba.
Patel says from today onwards, Ba will be known as a crazy, energetic, young rugby town.
He says the nails manufactured by Ba Industries are tough and strong, and similarly the players who come from the Ba Rugby Union will be ‘Tough as Nails’.
He adds now it is our responsibility to come together and cheer on confidence in the Ba Rugby team and create more players like Pio Tuwai, Gabrieli Naborisi, Joshua Tuisova, Waisea Nacuqu and of course, the current Ba Rugby head coach Vilimoni Delasau who are all from the province of Ba.
Ba is the first place that rugby was played in Fiji, back in 1884. In acknowledging the sponsorship, Delasau thanked BIL for backing Ba Rugby with this new tournament designed to lift the level of rugby in the province.
He says they had this idea to start a tikina competition to bring in all the outer areas of the province and raise the rugby standards.
He adds without the courageous step by BIL to join our vision, it wouldn’t have happened.
Delasau says the standard of the opening matches on the weekend just blew the spectators and fans away and now everyone is talking about the Ba Industries Cup.
Round 2 of games will be played this Saturday at Vinod Patel Park, with the early matches kicking off at 9am.
The four Ba Industries Cup games will be streamed live, with the link available on the “2023 Ba Rugby Union” Facebook page.
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