FIJI famously declared a national holiday when they won the Olympic Sevens but the date that is celebrated every year – with a toast if not a holiday – is August 9, 1952 when the original Flying Fijian Josefa Levula inspired a famous win.
That was the day when the Fijians claimed their first ever victory over a senior rugby nation with a 19-17 win over Australia at the Sydney Cricket ground in front of a bumper 42,000 crowd.
Before that Fiji had largely earned a reputation around the Pacific region for their athletic, if ill disciplined, forwards but the class of 52 was packed with talented backs, not least Levula who had pace to burn out on the wing.
Levula had left his calling card in New Zealand the previous year when his two tries inspired a win over New Zealand Maori, an individual performance that saw him nominated as one of the five players of the year by the New Zealand Rugby almanac.
A year later, although not on the scoresheet, he was the catalyst for everything good from Fiji as they took their first scalp on the world scene in a game that seems to have been airbrushed out of victory.
The £10,000+ receipts from that game incidentally are widely credited with saving Australia financially after disappointing attendances in the Test series against New Zealand the previous year had seen the hosts make a considerable loss. Now there's a thought to chew on and how rugby could have taken a different path had the will been there.
A 9.7secs man for the 100 yards Levula returned to Australia in 1954 to compete in the Australian Athletics Championships in Adelaide and took a silver medal in the 100 yards and a bronze medal in the 220 yards.
Later that year he was back in Australia and this time appeared in another Fiji Test win over the Wallabies, an 18-16 victory, again at the Sydney Cricket ground.
Levula concluded a happy sporting relationship with the Aussies by scoring a try in Melbourne in his last Test appearance, a 3-3 draw against the Wallabies in 1961, before he flew to Britain to turn professional with Rochdale Hornets, along with cousin Orisi Dawai who was the Fiji skipper and centre.
It was a trailblazing move – two other stars of the Fijian side Voate Drui and Liatia Ravouvou soon joined them – and Levalu enjoyed considerable success with 37 tries and 207 points in 80 appearances for Hornets before he signed for Bradford Northern where injuries and age started to catch up. He settled in the Rochdale area where he died aged 59 in 1989.
