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'It hasn't come easy': Drua hero Kemu Valetini opens up on tough '10 years'

(Photo by Pita Simpson/Getty Images)

Fijian Drua flyhalf Kemu Valetini will hold a special place in rugby history after kicking the winning penalty goal against the champion Crusaders in Lautoka last weekend.

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Having come on for his Super Rugby Pacific debut in the 80th minute, the fairytale finish couldn’t have been scripted any better for both Valetini and the Drua.

Valetini later described his debut as “unreal”, as the Drua shocked the rugby world with the 25-24 win over the defending Super Rugby Pacific champions.

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The significance of the clutch kick will go down in history as one of the greatest moments in the Fijian Rugby.

But Valetini’s journey to that now famous moment has been anything but smooth sailing.

The 28-year-old, who is the older brother of Wallaby Rob Valetini, has had to overcome injury after injury en route to his Super Rugby debut.

In his own words, “it hasn’t been easy.”

“It’s probably been about a solid 10 years that I’ve been in and out of contention of ‘am I going to make it? Am I going to not make it?’ I’m 28 now so you start to think of life after footy,” Valetini told RugbyPass.

“You start to doubt yourself if you’re going to make it because as you get older, teams start to look for the next generation to come through.

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“For myself, just dealing with a lot of injuries; knees, shoulders and just when you think you’re coming back and you’re feeling good, something else happens.

“It just been obstacle after obstacle for the last 10 years. Probably the last two years I’ve had a solid year without any injuries so that’s helped my progression.

“It hasn’t been easy.”

Valetini played with the Melbourne Rising during the 2018 National Rugby Championship campaign, and was given the opportunity to train with the Rebels during the following preseason.

But disaster struck – a knee injury brought an end to his time in Melbourne.

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From there, the playmaker pursued an opportunity in Spain, but had to come back to Australia early due to the outbreak of the Covid pandemic.

Another knee operation forced him out of “pretty much” the entire 2020 campaign, and the 2021 season was interrupted by Covid once again.

Then, after years of persistence, Valetini finally hit his stride with in the northern beaches of Sydney – impressing with Manly in the prestigious Shute Shield.

But amongst all this, Valetini did consider giving up on his Super Rugby dream.

“I just thought that maybe it’s time to start thinking of settling down and working a job, try building a future after rugby,” he added.

“But in my head, it never went away for me. Even with all the injuries that I had, in my head, I always had it in my head that I’d make it one day.”

Valetini realised his dream during last Saturday’s stunning win over the Crusaders, and kicked the winning penalty in the 83rd minute.

“To do that against the Crusaders, the defending champions and have my debut like that… ultimately winning the game for Fijian Drua was unreal.

“I probably won’t forget (it) for a very long time.”

Valetini has been named in the No. 22 jersey for the Fijian Drua’s trip to Brisbane, where they’ll take on the Queensland Reds at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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