Word to the wise: Kativerata's a perfect fit for Eels
By Steve Mascord
March 10, 2004
Since leaving Fiji eight years ago, winger Wise Kativerata has been to Moorebank, Orange, Murwillumbah, Wollongong and Redfern in search of rugby league stardom.
On Saturday night, the 27-year-old will run onto Telstra Stadium for Parramatta in front of around 45,000 people at the double header - while New Zealand Test star David Vaealiki watches from the Eels' bench.
In one of last night's most intriguing team selections for round one of the National Rugby League, coach Brian Smith reshuffled his cosmopolitan three-quarter line to make way for Kativerata.
West Australian Matt Petersen moves to the centres, with Vaealiki missing out.
Smith said last night not too much should be read into the Kiwi's omission - "He got knocked around in our last [trial] game" - but added that Kativerata had earned his spot.
"He just suits what we're doing at the moment: big and strong and fast and aggressive," said Smith, well known for giving journeyman footballers a fresh start. "He reaches the physical components quite easily that we're looking for."
Smith said that, away from the football field, Kativerata was anything but shy.
"He's got some of the usual characteristics of the lovely South Sea islands boys: he's a very pleasant young man. He speaks extremely well and he's quite forthright."
A couple of years ago, the man Dragons fans called "Wise guy" hit the headlines when he used a traditional Fijian remedy to return from a broken bone in his ankle after missing just one game. His mother Kelara, who still lives in Fiji, told him to wrap the injured ankle in the leaves of a "secret" Fijian plant - and St George Illawarra medical staff were stunned at the results.
"Courtesy of him, his club back home are now called the Eels and are now sporting Parramatta kit," Smith said.
And with the International Federation keen to bolster the Pacific nations in time for the 2008 World Cup, Kativerata could end up finishing his career with a few more jousts against several of his Bulldogs rivals on Saturday night, such as Tonga's Jamaal Lolesi and Lebanon's Hazem El Masri.
"He was very, very keen and played very, very well for Fiji in the [World] Sevens . . . I made a mistake there, 'cause he should have been playing for us," Smith conceded. "He's got a lot going for him . . . as far as footy's concerned, he remembers where he comes from. He's been quite a hit in our place."
