Bill Arthur reports on the visit of the Australian Fijian rugby league squad to a freezing Rochdale.
Aussie Fijians brave the weather to tour England
The hundreds of children who got the day off school weren't the only ones to enjoy the snow that fell on the north of England recently. A group of Fijian rugby league players were also out behaving like a bunch of overgrown kids and having fun in the middle of the blizzard.
At 5 in the morning the entire Australian Fijian rugby league squad were outside Rochdale Town Hall in the freezing cold having a mass snowball fight, making the most of the first snowfall that the majority of them had ever seen.
The Aussie Fijians are in England for a short tour and it's likely to get even shorter if the weather doesn't ease up. Their first game, against Workington, ended 15 minutes into the second half, with the Fijian in a commanding 36 point lead, as the Derwent Park pitch began to freeze under their boots and the fog began to roll in.
Their second game was postponed because of a frozen pitch and their third game at Hunslet, which they won impressively by 42-10, was played in a downpour.
But the warm welcome they've received in the home of Gracie Fields and the Co-Operative movement has more than made up for the ice and snow.
History
The Fijians have been staying in Rochdale which has been a home to Fijian rugby league players ever since Orisi Dawai and Joe Levula made history back in the 1960s by leaving their South Pacific homeland to sign for Rochdale Hornets. Since then the town has had a strong link with Fiji, a link that's maintained by the Rochdale Fijian Association.
The Association have been looking after the touring team and they laid on an authentic grog ceremony for the players - well, as authentic as you can get in the back bar of a Rochdale hotel on a snowy winters night, with the piped music playing and the slot machine burbling in the background.
But, in between the pool table and the dartboard, the Fijians managed to conjure up a flavour of the islands and I was honoured to be part of the proceedings. On rush matting surrounded by the visiting players, a member of the local community solemnly mixed a ceremonial bowl of kava, which is derived from a herbal root.
Now in the old days they used to find a local virgin who would chew on the root for a while and then spit out the resin to prepare the drink but, due to food safety guidelines and other considerations, it was decided to go with the watered down ceremonial recipe. It still looked like a muddy puddle and the seven real ales on sale at the hotel bar were a might tempting proposition.
Prayers were said, and hymns were sung and sung beautifully - this was a group of rugby league players sounding like a choral society! Then a welcome speech was made to the visitors and the kava was handed round, with James Pickering, the chairman of the Australian Fijian RL Association and a former Workington favourite, the first to be offered a drink from the halved coconut cup.
Grog
The Fijians, Samoans and many other kava aficionados are big believers in its medicinal properties although the European health experts and some law makers aren't so sure. But, when it came to my turn to down the grog in one go, there was no Bruce Parry moment, just a slight tingling of the lips and a peppery taste.
What the ceremony did open my eyes to though was the importance of tradition, which is what has sustained the Fijian community in Rochdale for nearly 50 years now, since the days of Dawai and Levula. And the visit of this team of Fijian players from many of the lower league and country clubs in Australia was a massive boost for the islanders who've settled in the Lancashire town.
The tour could lead to one or two more players making the move because, after the Bati's World Cup exploits when they reached the last four, Fijian rugby league is on a high (nothing to do with the kava m'lud).
James Storer, the hooker who had a big impact off the bench in the tournament, is among the touring party. Just last month he was playing against the Kangaroos in a World Cup semi-final at the Sydney Football Stadium. Now here he is turning out in the mud and cold in front of 700 fans in South Leeds but Storer sees this trip as almost as big an opportunity.
He's hoping to emulate team mate Semi Tadulala and play in Super League, as are several other members of the touring party, so this trip is a chance to catch the eye of British coaches and maybe land a dream move to a Super League club.
That's assuming that the British weather doesn't put the players off. But at least they know that if they do make the move across the world they'll get a warm and authentic Fijian welcome in Rochdale.
