The right decision on CIBI

www.fijitimes.com - Tuesday, January 05, 2010

THE Fiji Rugby Football Union has done the right thing by insisting that our national teams must perform the cibi before each Test.

This challenge –– laid down for nearly 100 years by scores of dedicated players –– has always been part of our culture and what makes Fiji rugby so unique.

In November this newspaper called for the return of the cibi after it was so unceremoniously dropped on the Northern Hemisphere tour.

There were some fans who claimed that if the national side performed the cibi, the results in the matches against Scotland and Ireland would have been vastly different.

Closer analysis of the matches shows, however, that it would have taken much more than a 100-year-old cultural item for Fiji to win the Tests at Murrayfield and Landsdowne Road.

For while the cibi is a source of national pride and a rallying point for the team, there is no guarantee of victory on the pitch when it is performed.

Victory will come from hard work during the off-season, sessions at the gymnasium, hours of ball work and mental fortitude.

But when the cibi is not performed, when our team does not line up opposite the opposition and challenge them to war, a little something is missing from the Test.

At the time of the Northern Hemisphere tour, national coach Samu Domoni was held responsible for the move which raised the ire of thousands of fans at home and abroad.

It was our contention that Domoni had no right to decide whether the team should perform the challenge before Test matches.

We also argued that Domoni's religious beliefs should not be allowed to influence the team's actions. That the coach has strong religious beliefs is not bad. And there is no harm in a team praying together each day before taking to the gymnasium or the training fields.

Typically, rugby players prepare for a Test match by maximising fitness, honing their skills and preparing mentally for the opposition.

For a Fiji rugby team, spiritual strength is just as important and adds a new dimension to the psychology of the sport. This does not allow a coach to harangue a member of the team for sleeping with a woman in the side's hotel before forcing the player to make a confession of his "sins" while other players watch in stunned disbelief.

Domoni's religious beliefs –– commendable as they are –– are a private matter between him and his God.

The cibi, however, is a matter between the people of Fiji and the side which represents all of us on the rugby paddock.

Remember that this is our challenge, our rallying point, our catch-cry each time the national side takes the field.

Now that the FRU has brought the cibi back, let us all learn the words and actions and be prepared to join in –– albeit from the sidelines –– the next time the cibi is performed.