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Simply Grateful

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FLY MY WINGED CHILD Through the eyes of a Flying Fijian Mum When I first started putting this last chapter together, we were days away from the Final Round of the Rugby World Cup 2019 and what a whirlwind of an experience it has been for me and millions of aspiring rugby fans and supporters. There is no doubt in my mind that the majority of these followers predicted a final match that would include the New Zealand All Blacks; I did, but unfortunately that was not to be the case.  SA Springboks RWC 2019 Winners The RWC 2019 finals was finally played between England and South Africa, with Africa eventually becoming the 2019 RWC champions. It has been 7 weeks of gruelling combat on the rugby ovals of Japan where this experience has turned rookies into polished world stage performers and players into heroes. The first game kicked off on Friday 20 September in Tokyo between the host nation Japan and Russia and now we are about to see the curtain finally fall for the las
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The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

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Fly My Winged Child Through the eyes of a Flying Fijian mum It has been 18 days since I arrived here in Japan and so true is the saying that "time flies when you're having fun!" Cathy and I. Family Support #50Rocks My trip has been nothing but fun and amazing! The fact that this trip is to celebrate my 50 th birthday which happened to coincide with the Rugby World Cup has been nothing short of a blessing. In fact, the additional blessing is that I get to share this with my Natabua High School and life long best friend Cathy Kumar (nee Fong) who is also celebrating her 50 th birthday.  Rugby has brought countless blessings and has done so much good for my little family of three to which I am and will always be grateful to my Lord Jesus Christ for. However, we have also had some bad times as well.   But in this environment of professional sport, unfortunately, along with the good and the bad, the ugly does raise its’ head every once in a while. T
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Out of the heart the mouth speaks

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Fly My Winged Child Through the eyes of a Flying Fijian mum Bula Vinaka, Konichiwa and Hello from Tokyo The Rugby World Cup 2019 is now in full swing. The rugby tournament where thousands or perhaps millions of supporters and rugby enthusiasts have converged into Japan to witness the sport of Rugby play out at its' highest level on the World's biggest stage. Webb Ellis Trophy Players from 16 countries have come to compete for the highly sought after coveted trophy, the Web Ellis Cup. I have now been  here in Japan for several days where I have attended two of our Flying Fijian games, tasted the nations beautiful delicacies and traveled up north by subway trains, Aeroplanes, buses, taxi's and bullet trains. I feel extremely blessed. As a parent of a Flying Fijian   I am counting my blessings for the opportunity that I have to be able to not just travel around Japan but to witness all their pool games thus far as well as  have the opportunity to meet
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Dream the Impossible Dream

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Fly My Winged Child Through the eyes of a Flying Fijian mum It is just after midnight here in Sapporo and I am finding it very difficult to sleep because of the excitement of Fiji's first game against Australia here at the Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2019. Flying Fijian Backs Tonight we got to witness the Flying Fijian's  jersey presentation which was inspiring, encouraging and highly motivating. I have been fortunate enough to have attended a number of jersey presentations in the past but there was something quite different about tonight's event. I left feeling hopeful and confident about tomorrow's match. The boys were relaxed and there was a real sense of unity among the team. They didn't expect for such a large number of supporters to show up tonight but there were a lot of us which I believe was a pleasant surprise. You could tell how much they appreciated the supporters showing up tonight. Hymns that were sung by our Flying Fijians were not o
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The Inner Circle

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Fly My Winged Child Through the eyes of a Flying Fijian mum Konichiwa from Sapporo! Leaving Sydney without my son Milan (the Younger Volavola) was tough because this was something he was looking forward to. Milan has recently landed a new role in the accounting firm he works for and because of this he made the decision to stay back in Australia. He may not be traveling with me but I know he is with us in spirit. Sitting in the plane on my way to Narita via Singapore, I sent a text to Ben to advise that I was on my way. “Yahoo!!” was his reply. I am so looking forward to seeing him and the team. This has been a long time coming – 4 years to be precise. With the ups and downs that life throws at us, we continue to rise. Such is the life of a Flying Fijian . Similarly to our Island brothers from Tonga and Samoa, the Flying Fijians do not have the luxury of first-class travel like many of the other nations do. But regardless of how they got here and where they have
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Memories of the Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2015

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Fly My Winged Child Through the eyes of a Flying Fijian mum It was around about the same time 4 years ago that I was boarding a flight to London heading to see our Flying Fijian Ben Volavola’s debut at the RWC 2015. It was to be his first. Blessed with having family based in London made it that much easier when it came to looking for accommodation. And when we had more family members (yes another cousin from Spain) descend into London, I felt like I was back home in Fiji. It was my first RWC experience and what an experience it was. Fiji were pooled in the same pool as England, Australia, Uruguay and Wales which was dubbed the “pool of death”. The RWC kicked off with the opening match between the hosts the English Rose vs the Flying Fijians at the Twickenham stadium. It was huge. I remember walking in thinking to myself that the many years of getting Ben to his practice sessions, 1:1 kicking sessions where he had me running all over the oval picking up th
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The Pathway to becoming a Flying Fijian

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Fly My Winged Child Through the eyes of a FLYING FIJIAN mum The Pathway for every  Flying Fijian  will always be different. But I think the common characteristics that they each hold are Self-belief, determination, perseverance and faith. It was 2013, we were 2 years away from the 2015 Rugby World Cup (RWC) to be held in England and rugby fans all over the world were excited. Here in Australia there was so much buzz in the air as to who was going to make the Wallaby squad and no doubt there was much discussion about the makeup of the Flying Fijians. For the Volavola family, many discussions were held between Ben, his brother and I about whether he would work towards trying to make the Wallaby squad or try out for the Flying Fijians. There were friends and coaches in the rugby circles who encouraged Ben to keep working towards a green and gold jersey and there were some who would talk to me directly asking me to encourage Ben to pick the green and gold over the black and
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