Rugby World Cup: Fiji star misses his 7-year-old son’s funeral

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Fiji only needs a point in the final group match at the Rugby World Cup against underdog Portugal to advance to the quarter-finals. The victory against the great rugby country Australia in mid-September and the subsequent qualification for the quarter-finals caused great euphoria on the island in the Pacific Ocean with more than 900,000 inhabitants. Fiji has only managed to make progress in 1987 and 2007, most recently 16 years ago. Josua Tuisova (29) has played a major role in the current success of the ‘flying Fijians’. The World Cup adventure will be particularly emotional for him because of the death of his son.

Tuisova missed the funeral of the 7-year-old, who died after a long illness. Tuisova’s father, who helped prepare the funeral on Tuesday, confirmed this to local online portal “Fiji Village”. The rugby player is making the huge sacrifice of missing his son’s funeral to represent his country in the crucial final group match against Portugal next Monday.

Particularly dramatic: Tuisova heard about the death of his son just before the third group match against Georgia last Saturday. Still, he wanted to play and his team turned the 0:9 deficit into a 17:12 victory. Photos from France’s “RugbyPass” show him spending about half an hour in the stands with fans after the important win, fulfilling requests for autographs.

He was man of the match in the historic victory

The rugby star himself did not want to comment: “Jos has respectfully asked that we not talk about it,” Fiji national coach Simon Raiwalui said at a press conference on Tuesday. “So it will not be discussed, it will remain private,” he added.

Tuisova has already stressed how important he is to the Pacific rugby nation. In the key match against Australia on September 17, when Fiji defeated the favorites 22-15 to beat the Australians for the first time since 1954, Tuisova was officially man of the match.

Source : Blick