“I feel a little bit awesome”

Before he travelled to London to deliver the match ball out onto the field for the opening match of Rugby World Cup 2015, Fijian schoolboy and rugby player Manueli had never left his island nation. His friends wanted to ride in his suitcase.        

DHL has searched the globe to bring 48 children from 42 countries to the UK for one unforgettable experience – to deliver the match ball to a RWC 2015 game. Manueli from Fiji was the first.

“I feel happy and excited. I think I feel a little bit awesome.”

“I feel happy,” says Manueli after playing a staring role in the opening match of Rugby World Cup 2015. And that despite the fact that his countrymen lost the battle on the pitch against hosts England. 

Manueli, who goes by Manu, delivered the official match ball out onto the field ahead of the game and held it while the national anthems of Fiji and England were played to a euphoric crowd of over 80,000 and some 9 million watching from home.

Click here to see DHL Match Ball Ambassador Manu arrive in London, head to Twickenham and lead England and Fiji out onto the field.

An emotional moment
The wide-eyed 13-year-old – who had never left Fiji before – was nervous but clearly excited about his moment.

“To be watched by everyone around the world, especially by my family back in Fiji, I feel very excited,” he says.

“I feel very emotional to hear the national anthem at the World Cup for the first time live. And I see the players live at the World Cup for the first time.”

“My friends are jealous. They tell me to pack them in my suitcase.”

When he won DHL’s Match Ball Delivery contest, Manu says his friends said he was “the luckiest boy alive.”

And now? “They are jealous,” he smiles. “They tell me to pack them in my suitcase.”

Number 9
Though Manu supports the “Flying Fijians” – Fiji’s national 15 – his favorite player in the world is Aaron Smith of New Zealand – and that for good reason. Not only is he one of the best scrum half backs in the world, “he plays the same position as me,” says Manu.

Read more about Manu here

Why does he like to be a Number 9? “You control most of the game,” he says. “You can rule over the other players, even if you are not the captain. You can tell them what to do. I think that position is very good.”

Manu remembers watching Rugby World Cup 2011 and can even tell you his greatest moment of that tournament – outside of the All Blacks winning, of course. “When the All Blacks scored the first try. I was cheering for New Zealand and my family was cheering for France,” he says with a smile. “I was dancing and shouting and cheering for the All Blacks and my family was just looking at me.”

See more of our Match Ball Delivery Ambassadors here.