Ba Industries Limited signed a ground-breaking sponsorship deal with the Ba Rugby Union on Wednesday to secure the naming rights for the Men’s Division of the new Ba Tikina Championships for three years.

The arrangement sees the eight Tikina teams of Ba compete for the Ba Industries Cup under the slogan “Tough as Nails!”

BIL Chairman Vinod S Patel hailed the sponsorship as an important day in the 140-year long history of rugby in Ba.

“From today onwards, Ba will be known as a crazy, energetic, young rugby town,” Mr Patel said.

“The nails manufactured by Ba Industries are tough and strong, and similarly the players who come from the Ba Rugby Union will be ‘Tough as Nails’.”

“Now it is our responsibility to come together and cheer on with confidence the Ba Rugby team and create more players like Pio Tuwai, Gabirieli Naborisi, Joshua Tuisova, Waisea Nacuqu and of course the current head coach Vilimoni Delasau.”

Ba is the first place that rugby was played in Fiji, back in 1884.

Delasau responded by thanking BIL for backing Ba Rugby with this new tournament designed to lift the level of rugby in the province.

“We had this idea to start a tikina competition to bring in all the outer areas of the province and raise the rugby standards,” Delasau said.

“But without the courageous step by BIL to join our vision, it wouldn’t have happened.”

“The standard of the opening matches on the weekend just blew us away. Now everyone is talking about the Ba Industries Cup.”

Round 2 of games will be played this Saturday at Vinod Patel Park, with the early matches kicking off at 9am.

Source: Ba RU