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Asinate Serevi is the daughter of genuine rugby royalty with famous father Waisale widely regarded as the greatest sevens player ever.
But there has been no red carpet rolled out in Serevi’s own fine playing career.
The Fiji star took the brave step of calling out her national union on social media last year for failing to honour their payment commitments to women’s players.
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The actions of Serevi and others led to an admission of fault from Fiji Rugby Union administrator Peter Mazey and eventual player payment for the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
“I can only apologise to the women who represented Fiji so proudly in our Fijiana 15s and Fijiana Drua teams,” Mazey said last year.
Serevi told Wide World of Sports that relations had further improved.
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“That was definitely a lesson for us as well as the Fiji Rugby Union,” Serevi said at the Super Rugby Women’s season launch in Brisbane on Wednesday night.
“But for us this year we started fresh. We’ve been offered contracts and we’re the new batch of girls that are going into a professional environment. So it’s been a huge change for us.
“We’re training most days of the week and we’re just grateful that the men are allowing us to share that space with them.”
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Remarkably, the Drua won the 2022 and 2023 titles – their first two seasons in the Australian women’s competition – despite not even having basic training facilities or access to their own changing room.
“We now get to use the gym in Suva,” Serevi explained.
“Last year, we weren’t able to use the gym because we didn’t really have the amenities to use. Most of our trainings were up in the sand dunes. A lot of times we would take the bus for three hours to get to camp and then three hours back home because we had to go outside of Suva to train.
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“Even the gyms, we didn’t have dumbbells or our benches were broken. We had girls injured in there because we just didn’t have the proper resources. But now we definitely have it. There’s just no issues anymore.”
Serevi was born in Fiji but schooled in New Zealand and the United States.
The 28-year-old lock graduated from Central Washington University with a degree in Law and Justice and played rugby for the USA national team.
But the pull of Fiji was always strong and she switched allegiance to represent her homeland at the 2022 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
“There’s a huge difference between playing with USA and Fiji – a lot of structure and then freedom coming home,” Serevi said.
“I feel like I fit in a lot more, we’re just comfortable talking to each other. I watched Dad play since I was a small child and representing Fiji means so much to my family. It means the world to us.
“I don’t know, I have no words for it, but I’m just building my legacy and women’s rugby is still growing. I’m excited to see where it goes.”
The Drua kick off their 2024 season with a grand final rematch against the Reds in Brisbane on March 17.
Given they are already back-to-back defending champions, a better resourced Drua squad is a scary proposition for their Australian rivals.
“Absolutely, we’re reminding the girls there’s no excuses this year,” Serevi said.
“Last year we struggled with fields, we struggled with gyms, we struggled with players and we didn’t have all these resources. Now we have the coaches, we have the management, we have the players. How bad do we want it?
“There’s no excuses going into the season this year. So we’re definitely running and gunning for the three-peat.”
