Pasifika Sipoti in brief for 2 July

RNZ News

02-07-2025

Semi Radradra of Fiji is tackled by Sam Costelow of Wales during the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between Wales and Fiji at Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux on September 10, 2023 in Bordeaux, France.
Photo:
Adam Pretty - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images
Fijian midfielder Semi Radradra is off to Japan after finishing up his two-year rugby deal with Lyon in the French Top 14.
Radradra has played union, league and sevens - representing Australia in league and playing for the Parramatta Eels in the NRL, as well as playing for Fiji at two Rugby World Cups and taking a sevens gold medal from the Tokyo Games.
Planet Rugby
reported he has signed with the Shizuoka Blue Revs in Japan's League One.
Samoa's national under-21 netball team includes the best of their players in New Zealand, Australia and Samoa.
The
Samoa Observer
reported the team, preparing for the upcoming Netball World Youth Cup 2025 in Gibraltar, has been selected, following a series of trials and fitness assessments.
Head coach Paula Stuart said the journey to the World Youth Cup began two years ago, which included winning the regional qualifiers in the Cook Islands.
She said the trials were critical in identifying the next wave of talent to carry Samoa netball through.
The Republic of Fiji Military Forces rugby team will take on the British Army Rugby team in a curtain-raiser, ahead of the test match between Fiji and Scotland in Suva on 12 July.
The British Army is bringing a 38-member squad on its Southern Hemisphere tour, which includes fixtures in New Zealand, Fiji, and Australia.
The team consists of 26 players and 12 coaching and management staff, including eight Fijian players and two Fijian staff members.
Colonel Graham Taylor, the Chief of Staff for the UK Defence Academy, said this match represents everything that is good about military rugby.
Fiji dominated the Pacific Rim Deaf Rugby Tournament at Surfer's Paradise in Australia.
FBC
reported the men's team defeated Australia 40-10 in the final.
The women's team scored three wins in their final day matches, beating Australia 38-7, blanking Japan 40-0, and overpowering Samoa 44-5.
Photo:
runitstraight24
A veteran sports commentator has slammed the "run it straight" phenomenon, calling it "dreadful".
Fauano Ken Laban, who recently announced his bid to run for mayor of Lower Hutt in Aotearoa, has expressed his concerns over the organisation known as 'Run It'.
Online footage from their recent event in Dubai shows former rugby league player Kevin Proctor falling to the ground and having what appears to be a seizure.
In an Instagram post later, Proctor said he was "all good" and was heading home.
"We all know what we sign up for getting in there. It's a contact sport and unfortunately I put my head in the wrong place and came out second best. Ya win some ya lose some, but no hard feelings."
Fauano
told
Pacific Waves
he would ban anyone from trying to host 'run it straight' events in Lower Hutt if he becomes mayor.