Ma’afu rates Ikanivere

Former Fiji Water Flying Fijians prop Campese Ma’afu highly rates the young Swire Shipping Fijian Drua hooker, Tevita Ikanivere.

Ma’afu said on Greg Clarke’s podcast that he knew Ikanivere was destined for greatness when he was part of the 2019 Rugby World Cup extended squad.

“Back in the 2019 RWC preparations, I had a chat with our forwards coach at the time, Neil Barnes and he told me he had a young fella coming from the under-20,” said Ma’afu.

“He literally just jumped off the plane from Nadi returning from the U20’s World Cup and joined us for preparations in Suva and his name was Tevita Ikanivere.

“I remember doing an interview with one of the local media and they asked which player I though the people should keep an eye on and I said Tevita’s name. Seeing him come out with the Drua and really mature into the captaincy role is really, really, really impressive.”

Ma’afu also mentioned how the 23-year old has really improved week-in, week-out and how he has an effect on the players around him.

“He’s a young guy that came through the systems and leads the team in the right direction,” Ma’afu said.

“For someone so young to take a leadership role to take control of it and steer the ship is really impressive and I look forward to seeing him in the future.”