Pre-Season chat with Vuanimasie Rasolea

Women’s rugby is definitely on the rise in Queensland. Over the weekend, I was lucky to catch up with one of the Queenslands rising stars, Vuanimasie Rasolea (but you can call her Vua)! After making her mark at the Global 10s earlier this month, she is excited about the “Super W” competition starting soon! (Hint hint: March 10th). A lovely person to talk to, I enjoyed hearing about her rugby journey among other things. Look out for more interviews with the Queensland Women’s XV players soon. Like Vua said, Queensland are the team to be supporting this year!

Hey Vua, Nice to catch up. Thanks for taking time out!

What a weekend at the 10s competition! Your team did so well coming out on top. How did it feel?

It felt really good to be able to win against New South Wales, we always have a bit of a rivalry there. It wasn’t easy, because we went into overtime, but it was awesome to win in front of our families and friends.  And the hard work that we’ve put in on the paddock over three weeks of training paid off, we stuck together, we really had to dig deep to win that game. We have a great bunch of girls who have each others backs, I think that was the main thing - just digging deep and going into those dark spots, when you just want to give up.

Just little chats where we say to each other “I’ve got you here.. we’ve got this” helped us through. We were happy with the 10-5 win.

Was it a good warm-up, ahead of the Super W competition starting shortly?

Yeah definitely, I think it was a good platform, as our coach Haysey [Michael Hayes] says. He describes everything that way. It was definitely a platform to see how we’d go as a Super W team, and have a taste of what each state will bring to the competition. It was definitely a great warm up, and to see where womens rugby has developed over the last few years. And hopefully, when the Super W comp comes around, we’ll have some more supporters.

Your first game is on Saturday, March 10th! I hope all my readers remember that date. The game will be at Ballymore right?

Actually, it might be here, but it could potentially be at Suncorp, before the Bulls game. So hopefully we’ll see you out there hey Tom?

Can you tell us a bit about your rugby journey. What age did you start playing?

I was brought up in a rugby family, my Dad actually played for the Fiji 15s team and moved over here. My brother [Junior Rasolea] was quite successful playing for Queensland boys and was fortunate enough to play for the Aussie Sevens team. (He built up his platform up enough to play for the Western Force and now he’s playing in Scotland.)

So growing up, I was his little brother (laughs), not little sister. So growing up, when he was doing his rugby drills, I was alongside him with my rugby boots. Just growing up in the Fijian community - we’re very rugby crazy. So growing up, rugby was very important, it’s pretty much our bread and butter. Each village has their rugby field. It was something we did after school every day, we’d play touch in the backyard and things like that.

I didn’t actually know that women played rugby until I saw the Women play Sevens in Byron Bay. I thought “you know, I might wanna play that some day.” I didn’t really think six years ago that I’d be playing rugby for Queensland. But it’s just awesome the opportunities that are coming up now for women now.

So yeah… I started when I was 16, and I’m 21 now.

What inspired you to start playing rugby? And who were some of your favourite players growing up?

That was mainly my brother, but also a player called Rebecca Tarvo, she captained the Aussie Sevens and I played alongside her in a couple of Fiji Sevens squads. She’s very much someone who I looked up to growing up. She’s such an amazing player on and off the field and definitely someone who inspired me.

But I think from day dot, it was definitely my Dad and my brother who’ve built that pathway for me to be comfortable with rugby.

I think the girls inspire me as well. Just seeing everyone, people who have kids, and other commitments, but sacrificing time to be able to come.

Anyone that I’ve played alongside has inspired me to push myself and be a better rugby player as well.

What are some of your hobbies, besides rugby?

I think just to keep me sane, I’m part of a church as well. I love just having awesome fellowship with my church members and catching up with them. Having a busy schedule, sometimes I do miss out on church stuff, so if I miss out on that, I make other time available to be able to catch up with them. I love hanging out with family, so if my cousins are available, I love chatting with them.

To relax, I love watching movies… But I think outdoor sports is my favourite thing. I like doing things out of the ordinary, things like paddle-boarding!

Thanks again for taking time out after training. Best of luck with the rest of pre-season.

No, thanks so much for your support, it means a lot, having even just one or two fans coming along. And having our main supporters like you Tom, supporting us along with the boys, it means a lot. If we don’t say thank you, trust me, it does mean a lot that you come along and acknowledge that women can play rugby as well as men. Reds is the team to be behind!

Reds Do the City Proud at Global 10s

16 teams from around the world playing a fast-paced style of rugby - what’s not to love about that? If you weren’t at the Global 10s competition over the weekend, you missed out.

I was there for every single game and it was an awesome event. 12 mens teams, and 4 womens teams from Australia(!) put on a great show. 

On day one, the Reds went down to the Auckland Blues in their first game and were pipped past the post by the Melbourne Rebels in their second (14-17). Even though the results didn’t go our way, I was proud of the boys for giving everything on the pitch.

Day two, the Reds had a taste of victory (read “thrashing”) against the Japanese Wild Cats (38-7). Then, after making it through to the quarter-finals, they beat last years champs, the Chiefs. Unfortunately, they went down to the Blues in the semi-final (with the Blues going on to win the competition.)

The crowd was great, with a lot of people cheering for each team. (A lot of photos from during the afternoon games are deceiving because one side of the stadium had the sun beating down on it. However, on other side where I was sitting (in the shade) there were plenty of fans cheering, making for a great atmosphere.

The womens Reds team took out the competition! Congratulations to them on beating the Waratahs in the final! The Reds smashed the Brumbies and Rebels without conceding any points. The teams arch-blue-rivals did beat them in game 1, but that didn’t matter in the end when they lifted the trophy.

Go Reds!

Catching up with Queensland Coach Brad Thorne

Brad Thorne has dominated the football world on both sides of the Tasman and thankfully, in recent years he has landed in Brisbane. He's been coaching for a relatively short time now, but has drawn from his vast playing experience to be given the job of coaching the Queensland Reds! One word pretty much sums up Brad Thorne. Champion. He's one of the few players that has won both an NRL and a Super Rugby title. And as much as I hate to admit it, he's a World Cup winner with the All Blacks (2011.)  But after settling back in his real home of Brisbane, this can only help the Reds this season.

[Brad:] Appreciate the interview mate. Thanks for coming down again.

[Tom:] Hi Brad, thank you for taking the time to catch up today. I know you must be very busy with the new squad.

How is pre-season training going? The inter-squad game on Friday was great! All the players looked really committed.

Yeah, preseason’s been going well mate. We started in late November, and went through December. We worked hard, as you do in a pre-season for Super-Rugby. A lot of fitness, a lot of strength training and a lot of rugby skills. Then we came back and had an army camp that was good for the boys, took them to some dark places, and then we’ve been training away for the last 4-5 weeks.

Yeah we had that internal trial, and it was good, they cracked into it. I think it was a good result at the end of the night. They got a good workout, both teams, and I think it’ll bode well for us going forward.

If there's one thing that would be a priority to focus on at the moment for the Reds, what would it be?

For me, it’s probably just the culture of the place. Just working hard together and through that hard work, getting more and more connected and tighter as a group. I think that all pays dividends. If you work hard together, and show that you care about each other, I think you see that in the way you play your footy and I think there can be some more improvement there.

You've played rugby in a number of places. You've also played several codes. What was it that brought you to the Reds?

What brought me to the Reds was that I’ve been here since I was 9 years old, this is like my home. New Zealand’s where I’m from, I was born there, but Brisbane is my home. I went to primary school here, high school here, I played my rugby league here. I’ve got a wife and four children, I wanted to bring them back here. I wanted to stay with Rugby and the Reds gave me that opportunity, so I was very pleased about that.

What is your greatest rugby memory?

Greatest rugby memory - probably the most significant one would be winning the World Cup. New Zealand hadn’t won it for 24 years. They’d always been favourites, but just hadn’t been able get that job done. So to be a part of that, to achieve that and win a World Cup is very special. And the next day, to have 250,000 people come, and to have a parade like that, to hold that trophy, it’s pretty surreal.

What was the key to your longevity as a professional rugby player?

I think the key - part of it was genetics, I was lucky - my brother, he always got injured. He’d roll his ankle on a flat bit of grass and I was the other way round, I never had a break as a kid, so that helped.

Also, I put a lot of work into, you know, the gym, flexibility and recovery. You know, if you put a big effort in, you usually get decent results. I’m very fortunate.

I heard a rumour you never officially retired. Is that true?

[Laughs] Yeah I didn’t actually retire, what I said is I’m playing less now. That remains the same and I think I will never actually retire. I love playing. If I didn’t have a family, I’d say I’d still be in Europe now as a 43 year old.

There’s times where I have real pangs of wanting to get out and play, but I have to move on, I’ve brought my kids back here. And I’m on this side of the game as a coach, hopefully I can do well with it.

What's one or two other pieces of advice you would give aspiring players, both boys and girls?

Number one is to love the game, just to enjoy the camaraderie, enjoy the physicality and the sport. So to really have a passion and enjoy. And I guess a bit of hard work goes a long way. 

Potential, or having ability is not enough. Talent’s not enough. You need to work hard and give yourself every chance. All the little skill things, whatever it is, chip away and get those little improvements, and give yourself every chance to progress with your rugby.

That's awesome. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there taking notes. Thanks again for your time Brad. We Reds fans will be cheering the team on this season.

Thank you very much for your time. Really appreciate it. There’s some really good questions there. I’m looking forward to the season as well. And hopefully, we can both have a smile on our face if things go ok.