World Rugby Nations Championship Samoa Tonga & Fiji Rugby exclusion in favour of Japan & USA
Channel: Much Of Life
Date: 2019-03-06

Petition:  https://www.change.org/p/world-rugby-pacific-island-boycott-world-rugby

The proposal by World Rugby of a League of Nations aka Nations Championship has been widely decried as unjust towards Pacific Island Nations Samoa, Tonga and Particularly Fiji.  World Rugby has moved to clarify World Rugbys position on the merits and structure of a Nations Championship concept in advance of key meetings in Dublin next week.

The Head of World Rugby, Brett Gosper has said that there is "no question of closing out" Pacific Island teams from a proposed new world league.  "Participation would be merit-based, based on rankings at an agreed time," he told AFP.   Brett Gosper has said that they carried out "research" in which "Fans were resoundingly positive about concept." What World Rugby as standard practice often do is set financial and other requirements so high that the Pacific Islands will never quality.

Many have said that World Rugby is out of touch, for example, Jonny Sexton has called them "out of touch" while All Blacks Kieran Reid has concerns about the games integrity. Va'aiga Tuigamala when commenting on Steve Tew and World League plans says that 'Pacific Islanders have been shunted'.

McKendry in the NZ Herald writes "Tew has insisted that World Rugby's proposal is just that and that New Zealand Rugby had issues with it including a lack of a "pathway" for the Pacific Islands, but Tuigamala said Tew was "kidding himself" because the islands had a clear history of being excluded from Super Rugby and the Rugby Championship.

"I think what the world needs to understand is that Pacific Islanders have been shunted," Tuigamala told the 'Herald'. "They've been deprived of their rightful place in world rugby. I say this as a very proud ex All Black player and very proud former Manu Samoa player."  Pacific Islanders are amongst the most talented and gifted rugby players in the world and score amazing tries. A good example is the Fiji Rugby 7s Team that consistently score breathtaking tries in the HSBC Series. They will be playing in the 2019 Canada Sevens in Vancouver, imagine what would happen if the Fiji Rugby Sevens or the Samoa 7s team to Canada 2019  boycotted?  There would be outrage.  However, these countries are the most underfunded but outperform nations with way higher budgets and populations. 

Leaked reports suggested the two emerging nations in this new League of Nations Competition would be USA and Japan, while 15th ranked Italy would be included on the grounds of their participation in the 6 Nations.  This has been seen as very unfair especially by Fiji given that they are ranked higher.

Pat Lam has said, "It's shocking, look at the Pacific Islanders and what they've brought. You look at all the teams - every team even in the Northern Hemisphere - you've got Tongans, Samoan and Fijians."  Many have spoken about racism in rugby specifically against Pacific Islanders in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. 

Pacific Rugby Players Welfare has said their 600-strong membership of mostly Europe-based professional rugby players is discussing and debating a motion proposed by a group of senior Test-playing representatives that members make themselves unavailable for the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

The PRPW says the call for a boycott is a ‘legitimate player protest’ at World Rugby’s reported plans to exclude the Pacific for as long as twelve seasons from a new TV driven world league of the top 12 Test teams.

‘This is 1995 and the creation of SANZAR all over again,’ said former Manu Samoa lock forward Daniel Leo, who heads the London-based PRPW which represents Pacific Island-heritage players throughout the European leagues, from the Top 14 & Premiership to National 3 & Fédérale 3.

‘This is exactly what happened when they created Super Rugby and all of the subsequent years of expansion. Their watchword was – let’s take their players but whatever happens, keep the islands out.’ 

‘This will be Pacific Rugby Disaster 2.0.’



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