Rudd helping to fund Pacific Island Rugby
Roar Rookie
By Siva Samoa, 11 Mar 2010 Siva Samoa is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- Fiji, Kevin Rudd, Rugby Union, Samoa, Tonga
Rugby has been the national sport of Samoa, Fiji and Tonga since the Marist Brothers introduced the sport there over 90 years ago. It is a religion and part of their culture.
And thanks to Kevin Rudd, it’s going to stay that way for years.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has commissioned former Australian Sports Commission chief Jim Ferguson to examine options to help the Pacific through rugby, leading to a soon-to-be-finalised package of measures in a $15 million, five-year, multi-sports program.
Mr. Ferguson examined 15 options, including that of greater Pacific involvement in the Super 14.
He proposed a $6m development program that includes scholarships for Pacific players.
The final package, to be announced next month, will not involve government support of greater Pacific involvement in rugby’s Super competition. Many of the best Pacific players are more involved in European club competitions, and some Super rugby teams have long benefited from having islanders on the roster.
This investment would also add to the millions and millions of dollars the IRB give to Samoa, Tonga and Fiji rugby after every Rugby World Cup.
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Chris said | March 11th 2010 @ 6:59am | Report comment
It’s not the dirty worm paying – its the Australian taxpayer.
True Tah said | March 11th 2010 @ 7:11am | Report comment
Let me get this right, Rudd’s government takes a razor to any funding for Australian rugby.
Then this comes out that he is looking at funding Pacific rugby.
Im all for the Islands getting more funding, better access to their players, having input into the games direction etc. But this is the domain of the IRB, not of the Australian government. I would rather see Australian rugby funded, primarily to help establish a proper junior club competition.
And if part of the plan is to offer scholarships to talented Islanders, does that mean they will end up playing for the Wallabies?
Apelu Tielu said | March 11th 2010 @ 10:45am | Report comment
True Tah.
You’re right, it’s the IRB who should be in helping the islands. But it appears they are only interested in funding rugby in white countries, not black and coloured countries. Look at Argentina. It could not beat Samoa in the 1990s World Cup, but they are now way ahead of the island teams because of the support they get from the IRB. And the IRB is throwing in a few millions to fund their participation in what will be a 4 nation competition. It’s the same thing with Italy. Rugby and the IRB are a white man’s sport.
Money will help island rugby, but what they need most is competition. The Wallabies and the All Blacks have never played in the islands other than Fiji, but even that was a millennium ago.
the scholarship program will be good for Australia because I cannot see any island kid on the program wanting to go back and play beach rugby.
Working Class Rugger said | March 11th 2010 @ 11:04am | Report comment
Apelu
Sorry mate but the IRB does invest in the Islands. Who funds both the Pacific Nations Cup and the Pacific Rugby Championship not the local Unions. Yes, they probably could do more in terms of development but truth be told most island Rugby would be non-existent without IRB funding. If this investment has a positive impact on the Islands then I’m all for it. Just wish the Aus Govt would do the same for Rugby in there own Nation.
ricardo said | March 11th 2010 @ 12:21pm | Report comment
20 years ago samoa – on their day – could possibly beat any of the top six ranked sides in the world..today, it’s impossible..
the game has gone professional and the national teams of those nations are fed by pro clubs/leagues the islands don’t have..i reckon the islands will slip in ranking to outside the top 18 in the next ten years..
True Tah said | March 11th 2010 @ 3:49pm | Report comment
Apelu
I think if anyone hasnt done anything to help the Islands in rugby it has been Australia. These Islands are right in our backyard, but how many times have we ever played a game in the Islands or even played the Island nations at all? Many players of Islander extraction have played for the Wallabies but we haven’t given anything to the Islands.
Our previous window was the Australia A team playing in the Pacific Cup, but that got shelved as well.
I know quite a few northern hemisphere teams have played in the Islands, certainly moreso than the Wallabies.
Plus the other thing that helps keep the Islands competitive is that so many of their players have professional contracts in Europe and Japan, and it does not endanger their eligibility…as opposed to the sheltered workshop that was the Australian rugby structure (until recently).
Redhead said | March 11th 2010 @ 7:25am | Report comment
Rugby is a religion in the pacific islands and provides one of few economic opportunities that many of the locals will have to make a good living in the developed world. It’s a real practical way for a fortunate country like Australia to help out our friends and neighbours. We should all be supporting this.
cookie said | March 11th 2010 @ 8:08am | Report comment
Perhaps he is just sending insulation over?
All that foil has to go somewhere!
Harry said | March 11th 2010 @ 9:12am | Report comment
Well anything that helps Pacific rugby is good.
Umm “Sivi Samoa” you wouldn’t happen to be a Government press officer per chance? Lets not forget “Kevin Rudd” (who has as much interest and empathy in rugby as I have in curling) cancelled the $25 Mn funding to Queensland rugby to redevelop Ballymore.
formeropenside said | March 11th 2010 @ 9:14am | Report comment
Well good on him, as I assume this is basically targeted foreign aid, coming out of the aid budget. Its a shame he wont bother to help Qld rugby though.
Brian said | March 12th 2010 @ 3:04pm | Report comment
he will if there are votes in it
Abbott is a rugby man
Bruce Ross said | March 12th 2010 @ 3:27pm | Report comment
But then a lot of people thought that John Howard was a cricket man until he tried to roll his arm over.
Tony at least has a front rower’s head
Dave said | March 11th 2010 @ 11:54am | Report comment
This is huge for rugby in the Pacific Islands and I hope its going to include the Cook Islands, Niue, Tahiti, Solomon Islands, PNG, Tokelau and New Caledonia. read this article in a Fijian newspaper but it was originally written by a rugby league fan on leagueunlimited. What a bunch of clowns.
http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=141243
Pacific needs Federal government’s help
Jeff Wall
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Update: 11:59AM IF the federal government commits to a programme to assist Pacific Island nations by funding rugby union training programmes in countries such as Tonga and Samoa, and scholarships to study and train in Australia, then we should welcome it.
But the NRL needs to do whatever it can to see rugby league included as well.
Traditionally, the Pacific Islands, including Fiji, have been rugby strongholds, with island players regularly making the Wallabies team. And more recently rugby has made an impact in PNG, with the new Queensland Reds captain, Will Genia, coming from PNG where his father was an MP and Government Minister.
But it is in the smaller Island nations that rugby has been the national sport.
It makes sense for the federal government, as part of its South Pacific commitment, to look at how rugby, and sport generally, can assist island communities which are struggling with economic and social challenges.
Over the last decade or so, there has been a massive growth in rugby league involvement in the Pacific islands – and that has followed an upsurge in the number of Pacific Islanders playing rugby league at all levels – from junior suburban clubs to the NRL premiership.
When I last checked, over 25 per cent of registered NRL players had a Pacific Island/Maori heritage. At the junior levels in Western Sydney and South East Queensland there are clubs with many of their teams comprising a majority of Pacific Island players.
The growth in Islander player numbers has prompted officials to look at weight and not age as the factor determining eligibility.
A number of NRL players have not only used their standing to help strengthen Pacific Islander communities here, they have gone back to their countries of origin to promote the game – and most have done so with minimum or zero assistance from the ARL.
If governments want to make a real contribution to our Pacific island nations, sport is an excellent way to do so. The proposal for a $15 million five year development programme in the South Pacific should be encouraged – and while it is rugby union focussed, rugby league needs to make sure it is included as well.
And it needs to go one step further and use the growing influence rugby league has in Pacific Island communities and families in Australia to argue for rugby league to play an even greater role in addressing the social and other challenges these communities face today.
We need to fully embrace the reality that the real growth in rugby league is being experienced in outer urban areas – and it is being driven by Pacific Islander, Maori and Indigenous players.
Rugby league, or rugby union, are not the only sports Pacific islanders play – but the influence players with a Pacific Island communities have in both codes is massive, and growing!
I have long argued that rugby league has not received its fair share of government funding,
especially to expand the work it does to assist communities under real social and economic stress.
In the last couple of years, funding has increased. And we have to hope it will increase even more if the federal government embraces the Crawford report into sports funding which it is due to respond to any day.
And assisting Pacific Island communities here, and in the islands themselves, needs to be a priority area.
hutch said | March 11th 2010 @ 2:35pm | Report comment
i found that article to be quite positive to both codes poly!
Bruce Ross said | March 11th 2010 @ 12:35pm | Report comment
Dave said: “This is huge for rugby in the Pacific Islands and I hope its going to include the Cook Islands, Niue, Tahiti, Solomon Islands, PNG, Tokelau and New Caledonia.”
$3 million a year spread across “multi-sports”. I wouldn’t get too excited, Dave.
ricardo said | March 11th 2010 @ 12:41pm | Report comment
yea probably enough for a printer/copier for the front office, some minor repairs for the van, some rugby balls and a couple kegs for the after-match..
Dave said | March 11th 2010 @ 4:51pm | Report comment
Funny article this one. Election year in Samoa is always good for rugby on and off the field.
Rugby jerseys popular sponsors’ item
Written by Aigaletaulele’ā F. Tauafiafi
Wednesday, 10 March 2010 10:58
A good source told Observer Sports, 2010 will be a good year for rugby teams. Why we asked. Oh, because 2011 is the general election and rugby’s one of the best tickets to gaining quick support.
Since that conversation we’ve taken a number of phone calls to take photos of teams with newly sponsored jerseys. At the same time there’s also been teams sporting new jerseys but without the request for media involvement.
Just last week we caught up with our source telling him perhaps he’s not quite on the money on this one. How so, says our source? Well, Vaigaga got a new uniform from Hyundai Samoa courtesy of Mr Ken Newton.
We’re pretty sure Mr Newton is not about to go on the campaign trail. We also got a call from the President of the Faleula rugby club to take a photo of their club’s new uniform sponsored by Silva Transport’s Sala Leslie and Misa Leslie Junior Silva. We also don’t think the Silva’s are on the 2011 campaign trail.
Then there’s Apia West’s Vaiusu Rebels and Apia Union’s Fagalii both sporting brand new jerseys but no request for special photos.
Well then, says our source, why don’t you investigate behind the scenes and find out who’s behind those clubs.
That’s the next step we told our source but already we know what you’re hinting at. For example, Faleula’s President is Solamalemalo Keneti Sio, who is the Associate Minister for Education, Sports and Culture.
But just because he’s wearing those two hats doesn’t mean the other, I mean, he’s also a former Manu Samoa player of great merit and is passionate about rugby so he shouldn’t be placed in that basket or penalise his club just because he’s part of the committee doing the cold calling for club benefits? Where does that place other members like Tuiloma Lameko who’s the President of the Samoa Rugby Union and President of Falealili rugby? Anyway, we’ll do our little investigation into trends but first here’s a little definition of what is meant by sponsorship.
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Sponsorships are not advertising. Sponsorship programmes differ from advertising placements as advertising directly promotes a company, product, or service through message placements bought for that purpose. In consumer venues, advertising is a quantitative medium, sold and evaluated in terms of audience demographics and cost per thousand, or performance-based measures, such as inquiries or orders generated by ad placements.
Sponsorship, on the other hand, is a qualitative medium; it promotes a company or organisation by associating it with a property’s (e.g Vaigaga or Faleula rugby team) purpose, mission, set of values, and public perception. It is largely this intangible affinity, also called community or public goodwill that most sponsors value.
So for Hyundai and Ken Newton, his company based in Vaigaga gains community goodwill by spreading part of the profits so Hyundai becomes a Vaigaga brand even though the company is now based at Vaitele. When people watch Vaigaga rugby they also subconsciously think Hyundai which is what happens when Vaigaga is mentioned in the media like what’s happening when you’re reading this article.
On the other hand, Hyundai would/should expect the Vaigaga rugby team to be a good ambassador through winning and or if lose then it’s done so with honest endeavour and with grace to match the values of the Hyundai brand.
This is why sponsors tend to associate mainly with winners, like the All Blacks, Wellington Hurricanes, Marist, Vaiala or Avele. Because winners are the reasons why not just their supporters go to watch, it’s what brings others as there’s something about winners that attracts people, and through that, sponsors collect their benefits.
For now, we’ll test our ‘source’s’ hypothesis and see what turns up. Hopefully we’ll get some more calls to take photos of new jerseys but in the meantime we note in weekend results, Vaigaga losing the senior reserves shield to Marist 10-3. Fagalii’s under20s got pipped in the final minutes 16-18 by Vaiala while Faleula lost its friendly against Leauvaa 15-17 in preparation to challenge Nono’a for the Tuamasaga Shield this Saturday. Their under20s team were dealt a reality check by Wesley College’s first XV, 31-7.
By the way, just spoke to Hyundai and a reliable source confirms Mr Newton is not planning to run in the 2011 General Election. But they did confirm Mr Newton will probably swallow a huge chuckle in Australia once the news reaches him.
http://www.samoaobserver.ws/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19946:rugby-jerseys&catid=34:sports&Itemid=54