Farebrother-Sullivan Trophy

The premier trophy of Fiji rugby competition was presented to the Fiji Rugby Union in 1941 by Messrs AS Farebrother and JJ Sullivan to be played as a challenge trophy between sub-unions on the same lines as New Zealand's Ranfurly Shield.

Mr Farebrother had managed Fiji's first-ever overseas tour in 1924 to Samoa and Tonga.

In 1941, the Unions were Suva, Rewa, Vatukoula, Northern Districts (later split to form the Lautoka and Northern Unions) and Lomaiviti.

Suva were the first holders and, apart from the loss to Northern Districts in 1951 which was avenged the following season, they remained holders until late 1957 when Nadroga added a new name to the trophy.

Nadroga did not hold it long ago as in 1958 the newly formed Nadi Union, taking the field for the first time after the break from Lautoka, beat the holders and retained the trophy until the end of the 1959 season.

Nadi, incidentally, played 10 representative matches in their first two seasons, an unheard of thing in those days and, by organising the now defunct Western Unions competition, laid the foundation of the present representative programme.

Suva won the Farebrother-Sullivan Trophy back from Nadi in the last match of 1959 and held it until 1963.

In 1964, Lautoka became the fifth union to win the Farebrother with a surprise 6-3 triumph over Nadi. But the Maroons handed it back to Nadroga in the following match.

Nadroga dominated the competition throughout the 1970s, capturing the trophy from Nadi in August 1971 and staving off all challengers until Lautoka won 6-4 in September 1979.

Only Nadro and Nadi enjoyed the honour of holders from 1980 through to late 1988, before Suva began their three-year grip on the trophy after beating Nadi 15-4 at Prince Charles Park for their first win in the conmpetition win for 20 years.

Through to 1998, Suva, Nadi and Nadroga maintained their stranglehold, but the newly formed Naitasiri union won the prestigious trophy at the first time of asking in July that year when they beat Nadroga 25-18 at Lawaqa Park.

Colonial took over the sponsorship at the end of 2001, a move that brought the old trophy back after nearly a decade of gathering dust under the Nadi treasurer's bed. A tobacco company had earlier forced their own cup upon a penniless Fiji Rugby Union in 1993, but Colonial's sponsorship allowed the original trophy to be restored.

In June 2002, Ovalau produced one of the biggest shocks of all-time by becoming just the seventh holder in the trophy's 61-year history with a 17-13 win over Lautoka just one year after being promoted to life as a major union.

Namosi, who themselves had only been promoted to the top flight in 1998, then followed suit by defeating the Old Capitals in Levuka to take the Farebrother to Navua.