I've just been on holiday for 10 days on Vomo Island in Fiji. When you first arrive in Nadi, line up in customs, search for your bags and stand waiting for your transport, which is running on Fiji time, you think to yourself, there is so much we could teach these people. By sunset, when you are more relaxed than after a week on the Gold Coast, it dawns on you there is also so much that we can actually learn from these beautiful people.
It is such a great destination. Apart from the obligatory bowl(s) of kava and snorkelling among the reef sharks, the daily highlight was joining the 5.30pm game of touch rugby. Vomo Island has a revolving staff population of about 120 men and women on a 10-day-on four-day-off FIFO roster; or more accurately BIBO (boat in boat out) roster.
But they still have a rugby team – there is no shortage of passion for rugby in Fiji. In fact, the Vomo team are about to compete in their first tournament, which is about a four- hour boat trip from the island, and the 5.30 games of touch double as their training for the tournament. Quickly you learn that there is much we can learn from Fijian rugby and, for many of the skills of modern rugby, theirs is a master class.
It was often rumoured that the great Randwick teams of the '80s and '90s would train by only playing touch rugby. I always found this hard to believe as I saw Simon Poidevin play touch rugby and knew that for him it was never more than an appetiser before the main fare.
Many of their other players, however, were born for it. They had one Fijian in Wallaby Arthura Niqila, three Ella brothers, who will need no epitaph, and among others, David Knox, once dubbed the white Fijian for his own highly skilled style of play. They would espouse that the skills developed by their mid-week touch served them well in the toughest of contests on a Saturday when the only thing resembling touch was the line patrolled by the touch-judge.
I believe it. The 5.30 scenes on Vomo are duplicated throughout the islands and villages of Fiji and for the Fijians, it is not the fact that they play touch rugby that matters most, but how they play it. Moreover, how they play it reflects both their culture and how they play seven-a-side rugby and also its relevance for the modern game.
The rules are simple and can be summed up in the name of the game, "One touch, touch", that is, if you are touched, you hand the ball over immediately and attack turns into defence. The format is both frenetic and unrelenting, creating a sanctuary for nurturing some of the skills of the modern game: keeping the ball alive, supporting from depth, and developing the skills and vision to beat a man. Oh, and not to mention fitness.
Of course, you must exhibit greater patience when playing 15-a-side rugby than you need when bounded by the coconut trees on Vomo but, as the game itself moves back to the future, with possession the key and defences becoming more orthodox and efficient, these skills have never been more relevant.
Of the skills, the ability to vary one's depth in attack is the most potent as it is so much easier to defend two- dimensional offence. Depth creates three-dimensional attack and when combined with physical confrontation skills in contact and at the breakdown, it becomes irrepressible.
Of Australia's Super 14 teams, the Reds and the Brumbies play with the most depth and the Waratahs and the Force most confrontation. Both styles have their moments but it is in the amalgam that ultimate consistency will prosper, as depth without force is impotent and force without depth dull.
For the Australian teams, three of which have a great opportunity of making the semi-finals, the manner in which they combine attacking in depth with their physicality will probably determine, first, whether they play in the finals, and second, whether they have any chance of winning.
As for my own experience, well let's just say that one of the great things about immersion in another culture, even for a short time, is learning more of the language. When travelling to Fiji everyone learns bula (hello) and vinaka vaka levu (thank you very much), from the moment they board the plane, but for many it stops there.
After playing one-touch, touch, however, my vocabulary expanded. I quickly learnt the word for forgiveness, vosota. "Vosota, that was a bad pass", "Vosota, he was my man" – "Vosota, I think I've torn my hamstring . . ."
