The Pacific culture places great emphasis on hospitality, especially to guests from outside.
This same respect is still paid today in many Pacific countries. Ask anybody who has travelled to the Pacific Islands, and they will tell you of the great hospitality shown there.
When outsiders visit Pacific shores, the locals go out of their way to host their foreign guests. They gather the very best of their produce to ensure their guests are fed well. They spend all night fishing the Pacific Ocean in a bid to give their guests a taste of the exotic seafood which the Pacific is renowned for.
And while you sit and dine, they entertain you with Pacific humour, through dancing and singing of the beautiful tunes of the Pacific under the radiant moonlight, at little to no extra cost.
In the end, you are treated to hospitality reserved for royalty at a price which is paltry in equivalent. This, from countries which have very little.
Yet in spite of the eagerness of Pacific countries to go out of their way to host those from afar, the same can’t be said about the Tier 1 nations’ treatment in return – in rugby terms. The Samoan rugby team, in their recent Test match against England, received a paltry two per cent from the 2.5million euros of the ticket sales of a sell-out Twickenham crowd. Sadly, those in the Tier 1 category are all about looking after number one.
The New Zealand Rugby Union, through constant pressure from the media and social media, responded to calls for the All Blacks to travel to the Pacific by playing their first ever Test match there.
Kudos to the New Zealand Rugby Union, but what about the ARU, the RFU, the SARU and the FRU? And what about travelling to Fiji and Tonga?
The thing is, when the Pacific tour, they do so without any expectation of a significant windfall.
They travel all the way to the Northern Hemisphere to play in temperatures close to zero degrees, with little expectation of any incentive than for the pride of wearing the red of Tonga, the white of Fiji and the blue of Samoa.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way saying that the New Zealand, Australian, English, French and South African (to name a few) rugby players do not play for the jersey. What I’m implying is that professional rugby, being the business that it is in modern times, is a tad too serious.
But there is more to life than money and profit, as all companies must at some stage show some goodwill.
The Tier 1 nations (especially those ranked in the top six in the world) may need to relax such business mentality every now and then. In the nature of how the Pacific hosts it guests, they need to pull out the exotic fishes, reap the finest produce of the land and to bring out the ukulele when the Pacific tour.
This Test match in Apia between Manu Samoa and the All Blacks may be the first by the genuine super powers of world rugby, but it may also be the last.
Calls for the super powers to tour the Pacific will continue to fall on deaf ears. But when the Pacific, as well as other Tier 2 nations tour the Tier 1 nations, the least the Tier 1 nations could do is show some sense of hospitality, and give them a decent return on their day’s work.
The Pacific nations give all from nothing. Sounds lame when you give nothing from everything doesn’t it?
Jerry
Guest
The IRB is beholden to its member nations and the 6N sides (who don't have any interest in revenue sharing) have a big enough voting block that they could vote down any measure introducing it.
Ozee316
Guest
Tier 1 nations threatened to boycott the last World Cups if they didn't get massive payments to reimburse their 'lost earnings' from regular test matches they stage in non world cup years. This doesn't affect soccer so much because the World Cup makes so much money it's able to pay every country out enough. In rugby the next 15 tier two and three nations get a reasonably good share of World Cup earnings but terrible share in the intervening years. These 15-20 nations can join together and boycott the world cups unless they get a negotiated increase of more tests against tier 1 nations AND a greater share of revenues (eg 30% minimum of total match revenues) the farce when Samoa got £100,000 and England £4,000,000 in the recent Autumn test is ridiculous and is partly the cause of their nations strife.
Ozee316
Guest
World Rugby (formerly the IRB) manages cross border rugby finances and schedules in much the same way as the WTO and World Bank. Trade (see matches) are only ever scheduled in such a way as to serve the interests of those already in power (see richer nations/unequal trade/WTO protests). World Rugby funds tier 2 and developing nations rugby from the World cup but this hides a dirty truth. Tier 1 nations make far more money than the World Cup in the intervening years but this schedule is skewed so games are almost exclusively between rich nations (so neither nation loses revenues) and if there is a game with a developing nation the revenue is split 95%/5% in favor of the richer nation. This has nothing to do with the spirit of 'World Rugby' but simply the same raw economic power which keeps poor countries poorer and rich countries develop together in sync with eachother. The only solution is for World Rugby or the IRPA or SANZAR or and similar groups representing the interests of All rugbys players (not just rich elite) to join together in demanding rules for fairer revenue sharing from test matches and a minimum number of "cross-tier" matches per season. Left to business, Sponsors and broadcasting executives who know only their own interests and $$$$$ the status quo will simply remain.
Ozee316
Guest
The IRB gets money from World Cups only. This money is distributed to the Islands and other Developing Rugby Nations but in Recent years Tier 1 nations threatened to boycott the World Cup if they didn't receive much larger compensation for missing their regular scheduled test matches in World Cup year. The only equitable solution is to move to a more equitable sharing of broadcast, sponsor and match revenues both from World Cups AND in intervening years. TRC and The Six Nations excludes poorer rugby nations so that richer rugby nations can share match revenues between eachother. A simple solution is for all test Match revenues to be shared 50/50 between the nations playing and that teams must play half tier 1 and half tier 2 nations each season. This simple edict would both share revenues and make sure more inter-tier matches to develop world rugby.
tinman
Guest
Not surprised at all. The Samoan PM will probably come up with some blatant rubbish excuse! Then say its the players fault! Farking crooks! Change will come painfully & slowly. I wouldn't trust those a**holes with 2 cents!!
atlas
Guest
Just watched a tv news item on the auditor's report on the finances of Samoan rugby around RWC. Fraud, theft. Six million tala (that's approx AU$2.96 million). Over one million 'gone' - no receipts, no records. 670k 'gone' no receipts'. the rest? - receipt books missing, fabricated receipts for services never provided, bonus payments made to 'support staff'. Anyone but the players it seems. Three years ago (they replayed interview from 7 Nov 2011) Mahonri Schwalger claimed six million had been misappropriated. Not far off the mark. Players have had to pay their own air fares to get to test matches; one training session there were no balls! The full auditor report to be made available online tomorrow.
Alvin Purple
Guest
I think you will need to read about their Pacific Strategy. on their website. My understanding they have employed 12 development officers in PNG alone (understand this is a RL country) and then working with the governments of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga to introduce something similar through educational and business type programs Fiji have been accepted into the NSW Cup in 2015 I believe however not sure of all the details. Not that it really matters but I doubt that the NZRU and ARU have invested any funds
Brian Kolia
Roar Rookie
Nice one tinman!
richard
Guest
sorry
groan
Guest
New Zealand is a Pacific Island nation? Well then so are Japan and Australia then.
Derp
Guest
So what if PNG is Melanesian? Fiji is Melanesian.
Garth
Guest
If he does, he's doing a crappy job of keeping track of where his money is going.
tinman
Guest
Yeah I did see that & it was great to see that more awareness has been raised but not new to islanders More needs to be done. Everyone talks about not enough $$ for teams to generate in the PI nations & that maybe true and unions have to make $$ but is it fair? I think a better % in tickets sales would be a good start especially in top tier countries. Maybe a rotational trip to the PIs every 4 or 5yrs? Every top tier nation for northerners coming down south to stop off in 1 PI nation before their 3 test tours down under not just once ever 20/30 years. As for the the governing bodies I'd just replace the lot of them & make their operating systems more transparent. Politics & sports do not mix very well especially in Samoa's case!! With that said I do plan on going next year to watch Samoa v AB game (Mrs doesn't know yet) Probably the only game where I'll be happy with either results. Not that I think Samoa will win but just hope they hold up & play well & some unknown scouted for overseas club to help their aiga (family) No doubt I'll see the PM waddling about!
peeeko
Roar Guru
good point Wardad, people don't have the same problem with Aust and Kiwis using the loose eligibility criteria to represent Scotland,Wales,Japan etc
peeeko
Roar Guru
richard, i was disagreeing with the other guy, not you.
It might be worth investigating the potential of getting a PI team into the Vodacom Cup, we have had Namibia, Argentina involved in previous years. The Argentinian team was based in the Western Cape and played in the Southern conference, it could just as well work for another team.
Dave
Guest
I'd say teams like Fiji and Samoa actually got better by having more players signed to professional provincial teams which in turn created a better national team rather than Fiji or Samoa actually playing consistently against more fancied opponents (which they don't actually do regularly enough to warrant their rise up the rankings)
Coconut
Guest
Kolia, New Zealand does a lot for Samoan rugby. Including gate takings for the games played in NZ... The game they are playing in Apia will only be in front of about 20 k people becuase the stadium isn't big enough. The Pacific island players are playing for franchises in NZ, and return to play for their countries unlike the Clubs in Europe. Many coaches, trainers, technical support has been provided to Pacific Island countries over the years. The Pacific Island countries can tap into players who have been born and bred in New Zealand. In fact, 14 of the Samoan players at the last World Cup were born in NZ and learnt their trade in NZ. Now we see the players are being ripped off by either a corrupt or extremely inept Samoan Rugby Union such that they threatened to boycott their game against England. Fiji has had similar trouble with corruption as well. The IRB needs to step and sort this out, as well as provide more support to the PIs if in fact it is needed.
RobC
Roar Guru
yes, it will be interesting how it plays out.
AndyS
Guest
I agree...it is probably only the IRB or (maybe) SANZAR that could force it.