A handover of the official uniforms for the three teams participating in this year’s Rugby Tri-Nations Tournament took place at the Vodafone headquarters yesterday afternoon.

Vodafone Cook Islands has been named the key sponsors of this year’s event and the company yesterday revealed the jerseys, shorts, socks, and polos for the three teams.

All three team captains of Team Cook Islands, Team Fiji, and Team Samoa were present at the ceremony to receive their gear as they prepare for the upcoming tournament, set to take place next month.

Phillip Henderson, chief executive of Vodafone Cook Islands, said: “When the opportunity came up to support the Tri-nations after watching last year’s success, despite the hard times we are all going through, we decided it would be a good investment to make at this time.”

“The Samoan and Fijian communities are part of the Cook Islands community from an economic and civil society perspective. We want to celebrate that and we think rugby is a great way to do that. May the best team win.”

All three teams were given the chance to contribute their ideas towards the designs of their uniforms.

Ben Koteka, Cook Islands Rugby Union’s development manager said: “We are truly grateful to have sponsorship especially in this time of uncertainty. We have been blessed today having Vodafone sponsor the uniforms for all three teams. It’s fantastic.”

“We are looking forward to some good competition over the next few weeks.”

Koteka added that they were glad to have got the gear done in time and now they can focus on preparing the teams for the beginning of the games.

Team Cook Islands and Team Fiji will play each other in the first match of the series taking place at The Swamp in Avatiu on Saturday, November 6.

The second match will be held at Victoria Park in Tupapa on Saturday, November 13, between Team Cook Islands and Samoa. The third and final match will be held at Raemaru Park featuring Samoa and Fiji.

Thomas Toa, captain of the Cook Islands team, said he was excited and looking forward to playing in the first game of the tournament.

However Toa shared that Team Cook Islands had been lacking in the number of players showing up to the training so far.

“Those who have turned up are keen and eager to play. Hopefully we get more numbers. We'll take it from there.”

Toa will lead the Cook Islands team against Joshua Koroi and Team Fiji. 

“I’m happy that they have chosen me as a captain and am looking forward to the first game next week. I’ll be doing my best for the boys,” Koroi said.