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\n Manly men (l to r): Caleb Navale, Tom Trbojevic and Brandon Wakeham after the Kangaroos met Fiji in Brisbane.
\n \u00a9Zak Simmonds
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Defying the odds comes naturally for Caleb Navale, so he holds no fear as his Bati brothers prepare to shake up the World Cup with a semi-final berth on the line against the Kiwis on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Coming much closer to the Kangaroos than many thought in Brisbane last Sunday has given the squad an added boost of confidence, with the 23-year-old lock stepping forward as an emerging leader of his pack.<\/p>\n
Taking inspiration from his family and the guiding light of iconic Fiji big man Daniel Saifiti, Navale has led the metres and tackle count for his side for an average of more than 70 minutes per game in the opening two matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying to follow his lead. Last week he was just hitting people (smacks hands together) with his shoulders and I felt like that was something I could improve on instead of just catching (attackers),\u201d Navale said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying to be aggressive more than anything and Saf\u2019s laying a good platform for the boys.<\/p>\n
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Australia v Fiji Bati, Round 2, 2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the biggest thing I\u2019m learning from him is he keeps it so simple, it\u2019s just aggression. The game is so simple to him, but that\u2019s why he\u2019s one of the best forwards in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
One could say Navale, who is without an NRL deal for 2028, is simply making the most of an opportunity that could have easily eluded him due to injury.<\/p>\n
In February, the Sea Eagles middle suffered a ruptured ACL but worked overtime to fulfil his desire to represent the Bati, returning to NRL in just over six months so he could prove he was worthy.<\/p>\n
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Caleb Navale Try<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was walking out it was a packed stadium\u2026 40,000 just hit me. It was a bit of a pinch-me moment and I just had to take it in for a second,\u201d Navale said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked around, I couldn\u2019t believe it. I thought about how I started the year and just to get here was a bit of a full-circle moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially after going up against Australia, I think I\u2019ll take a lot of confidence out of that and hopefully next week too, going up against New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are the two best countries in the world and the fact we\u2019re going toe-to-toe, I can take that into next season and I feel like if I\u2019m matching it with them, I can match it with anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Navale is now daring to dream of the impact the Bati could have on the people of Fiji should they qualify for the semi-finals, particularly where his parents were raised.<\/p>\n
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\n Manly men (l to r): Caleb Navale, Tom Trbojevic and Brandon Wakeham after the Kangaroos met Fiji in Brisbane.
\n \u00a9Zak Simmonds
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His father Eparama, who played in the 2000 World Cup, hails from Biausevu in the southwest of main island Viti Levu, while mums roots are in the village of Mokani in the southeast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re big supporters and they were in the crowd [at Suncorp] waving their flags and that, so it was good seeing them,\u201d Navale said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s really given us a chance coming into this pool, like they\u2019re saying \u2018pool of death\u2019 and what-not and I think we showed we can go toe-to-toe with the best and if we can do it against New Zealand, that would be incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch every World Cup game live, free and exclusive on Seven and 7plus Sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defying the odds comes naturally for Caleb Navale, so he holds no fear as his Bati brothers prepare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-944666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}