One of the stars of the 2003 Rugby World Cup has revealed how he's penniless and living in Fiji having wasted all his money on alcohol and handouts.
Rupeni Caucaunibuca emerged from the tournament 16 years ago one of the most sought after players on the planet and signed lucrative deals to play in France.
The bank-busting contracts should have set him up fo life after rugby.
However, Caucaunibuca has said in a short documentary called Oceans Apart for the Pacific Rugby Players’ Welfare organisation that the money’s all gone, spent on alcohol and handouts.
Caucaunibuca, now 38, was at one stage the most lethal finishers on the planet, taking the 2003 Rugby World Cup by storm and securing himself a lucrative move to France with Agen. He also played with Toulouse.
His meteoric rise from village life in the Bua district of Vanua Levu Island, Fiji, to playing Super Rugby for the Auckland-based Blues and then the mega-rich Top 14 in France is only matched by his subsequent fall.
And the versatile back, who incredibly played just seven times for Fiji and once for the Pacific Islanders hopes his story and mistakes made along the way will not be repeated by the next generation.
Speaking openly on his career, Caucaunibuca said: “I just used it for nothing. I spent it on drinking and helping people,” 38-year-old Caucaunibuca said on the Oceans Apart documentary.
“I regret it. I should have kept a few hundred thousand for after rugby. But it’s too late, I’ve already spent it all, for nothing.
“No-one taught me when I started,” he said. “Straight from my village, I ended up a big rugby star.
"In one year, from my village to Suva, Suva to the Fiji team, and then New Zealand, in one year. No-one taught me to do this or do that."
There were instances during his career when Caucaunibuca would disappear for weeks, explaining why he got into trouble iwth clubs and played so few Tests for his country in the end.
“You know living in the village with your friends, your relatives, it sometimes made me… I didn’t want to go back. When I stand on the other side, this side, and look at myself, I think it’s wrong.
“I’m running around, hiding from these guys, hiding from the club, and that is not good. I am not allowed to do that.”
