After a decade in the French Foreign Legion following his enlistment as a teenager, the pressures of professional rugby hold little fear for France sevens player Tavite Veradamu.
The 28-year-old Fiji-born wing is one of France’s main attacking threats at this weekend’s World Cup Sevens in San Francisco, a tournament appearance which caps a meteoric rise through the ranks of the French sevens set-up. Veradamu wasted no time on making his mark at AT&T Park on Friday, scoring France’s opening try in a 50-0 demolition of Jamaica.
He then capped off a superb opening day with two more tries including the winning score in a 22-17 victory Australia in the last 16 late Friday. The Fijian only made his debut for France last year after being fast-tracked into the French team.
A chef-corporal based at Colonel-de-Chabrieres barracks, near Nimes, he was spotted during a training session with the French army side.Since making his debut last December, Veradamu has made 44 appearances on the World Rugby International Sevens circuit, scoring 115 points. Despite a long tradition of Fijian rugby players ending up in France, Veradamu said he had no intention of a professional career when he made the decision to enlist.
“I wanted to earn money for my family, so I chose the Legion,” Veradamu told AFP.”I was 18 years old, alone. It was very hard. After three years in the Legion I started playing rugby just for fun. Some of my friends said ‘You can play rugby professionally’. But I told them I came to France to join the Legion, not play rugby.’ But when I got the chance to represent France at Sevens, I was very proud.”
Veradamu has transferred to a logistics branch of the Legion after spending several years in a combat unit. His spell as a combat soldier included tours of duty in Djibouti and Mali where he fought jihadists.
“I’m based in France but we’ve been on plenty of missions,” Veradamu said. “I was five years in a combat unit. It was really tough. You don’t have a regular life. Life in the Legion is great but it’s tough. The first year was very hard. Very different. A lot of training, not a lot of food, and not a lot of sleep. But after a few years I got used to it, the discipline, the military life.”
Veradamu, who plays as a flanker in the 15-a-side game, said he is happy to play professional rugby for France for as long as he is able. But he would be equally happy to return to his military career when he hangs up his boots.
“I have a professional contract, but the army has said that afterwards I can always come back to the Legion,” Veradamu told the media.
New Zealand storm through World Cup 7s opener as England crash. New Zealand’s women kicked off the defence of their World Cup Sevens crown with a 57-0 thrashing of Mexico here Friday as England were the highest profile casualty in early action.
Portia Woodman, the topscorer on the international sevens circuit this season with 43 tries, opened her World Cup account with a brace in a one-sided rout of the Mexicans at AT&T Park.Sarah Goss scored a hat-trick for the Kiwi women, who are bidding to retain the crown they won at Moscow in 2013. In warm, sunny conditions in the stadium which is the home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team, the New Zealand women ran in nine unanswered tries.
The New Zealanders will now face Ireland in the quarterfinals later Saturday after the Irish women stunned England 19-14.Ireland trailed 7-5 at halftime but rocked the English women with two second-half scores from Amee Leigh Murphy Crowe to take a 19-7 lead.
England grabbed a late consolation through Alex Matthews but it was too little too late.In other early games in the women’s draw Friday, Olympic champions Australia eased through their opener with a 34-5 win over Papua New Guinea.Australia was to face Spain in the quarterfinals later Friday after the Spaniards overpowered Fiji 19-12 in their first game.The preliminary rounds of the men’s draw kicked off later Friday.