Fiji’s top two referees, Lavenia Racaca and Tevita Rokovereni (left and right in the picture), have been offered contracts by the FRU.
James Bolabiu, Fiji’s High Performance referees manager is offering the two full time roles which would be the first for the duo in their refereeing career. Speaking to the Fiji Sun newspaper, Bolabiu said “Part of my role is to make that happen because the demand for their time, they also referee the Fiji training sessions and warm-up matches.” Over the weekend, both were in Vancouver where Rokovereni became the second Fijian referee (after Bolabiu in 2009) to officiate in a sevens series Cup final.
Tex, as he’s known, has been refereeing for eight years, and Bolabiu said the weekend’s achievements “far reflected Rokovereni’s commitment and hard work. He’s previously officiated in the quarterfinals and below and with the set-up of this programme he was able to make it to the final. Our goal is to produce good referees, not only to referee the final but to be good referees out there so they can service the game well.”
Racaca made her World Series sevens debut in Perth in January 2024, having started refereeing in 2016 after sustaining an injury while playing sevens rugby for Maris Seahawks.
Fiji has about 30 referees in their development programme, include 12 female refs. Another significant achievement of the programme was sending six referees to the Oceania 7s earlier this year in Solomon Islands – the biggest number from any Pacific Islands country.
Congratulations to Tex and Lavania!
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