Meli Laddpeter 
Navala Rugby Youth Club side
Being shut away from the rest of the country in the highlands of Ba, members of the Navala Rugby Youth Club have been using alternative ways to prepare themselves for the 2025 McDonald’s Coral Coast 7s next week.
Team manager Ilario Belo claims that their players are accustomed to not having the necessary training equipment available.
He adds that their team mostly uses the environment around them to train for upcoming 7s tournaments, and they have been doing so for the past few years.
This ranges from going on hikes at nearby mountains to conducting training sessions in the Ba River.
In addition to using a variety of weight equipment, Belo says the team has discovered numerous ways to utilize old car tyres during their training sessions.
“From the mountains to the shallow waters in the Ba River, we have turned to this over the years to prepare for such tournaments. There are only a few pieces of weight equipment that the team has, so we use old tyres at almost all our training sessions.”
As they prepare for the Coral Coast 7s, Belo says the team is focusing on picking up from where they reached last year and putting out a better performance.
They believe the boys have what it takes to advance past the pool stages this time.
The Coral Coast 7s will be held from Thursday to Saturday at Lawaqa in Sigatoka, and you can catch all the action live on FBC Sports.
