A utility back for the Tuva Rugby Club, Samu Tiqe Lutumailagi, 27, passed away at Lautoka Hospital on Monday. Lutumailagi, from Semo Village in Nadroga, had collapsed two weeks earlier during a Nadroga Rugby Union club competition match in Lawaqa.
Lutumailagi was playing as a hooker for his team against Lomawai on June 20, filling in for the regular hooker who was absent. His father, Tomasi Hatuku, described him as a hardworking individual devoted to his community and church responsibilities.
Hatuku, a taxi driver based in Nadi, recounted that he had left for work on that Thursday morning, not knowing his son planned to participate in the rugby match later that day.
“We had breakfast together that morning. I left for work while he attended to his usual hobby of planting. I assumed he would be working on his cassava plantation,” Hatuku said. “I did not know that after seeing me off to work, he returned home to pick up his playing gear.”
The district of Tuva comprises eight villages: Vouwa, Nadroumai, Togovere, Semo, Nabau, Kamisi, Emuri, and Niu Yoka. Lutumailagi was the fifth of eight siblings and one of seven sons of Hatuku and Amelia Vesu.
Hatuku later learned that Lutumailagi had borrowed money from his older sister for his fare to Lawaqa. Hatuku was at work when he received the call that his son had been rushed from Sigatoka Hospital to Lautoka in a critical condition.
“I also got to know that he had collapsed after the second scrum,” he said. “Like every other typical son of Nadroga, Tiqe loved playing rugby. He started with rugby league while attending Ratu Kadavulevu School for Forms Three and Four.”
Lutumailagi had represented Cuvu College in the Fiji Secondary Schools Deans competition and was a member of the Tuva Under-19 team that won the Coral Coast Sevens U19 title for three consecutive years. He had also been part of the Nadi NASA team since last year.
Lutumailagi will be laid to rest in Semo on Friday. Nadroga secretary Isireli Basiyalo referred inquiries to the union president, Jiuta Waqavonovono, who was unavailable for comment.