In the world of tennis, the serve and volleyers were once kings of the game. They showed an instinct and freedom for the game that was a beauty to behold.
Rushing to the net following a serve, they had split seconds to adjust and return the ball.
But the game of tennis evolved, with the professional era heralding firstly a change in racquets and an emphasis on baseline play that resulted in the governing bodies making a decision to homogenise court speed and reducing the duration of the grass court season.
Ultimately, the loss of diversity was the cost tennis fans had to pay. Gone are the days of Pat Rafter launching himself at volleys and matches pitting volleyer versus baseliner. The governing body allowed the art of serve volley to die.
I fear the same for the Island nations of Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. We must not allow these great rugby nations to wither and fall away. They bring so much to the world of rugby and we must do everything we can to nurture and protect these nations.
The Samoan rugby federation has huge financial issues and funds are at a premium. The English RFU has agreed to provide a percentage of their gate receipt to assist Samoan rugby, and while this is a truly generous gesture we will need more ideas to ensure the sustainability of rugby in Samoa.
Fiji is potentially next but perhaps its success in the sevens domain helps insulate them a bit more than other countries. Rugby governance is certainly not my strong-suit and I will more wiser heads to discuss that.
I was driven to write this after watching the Scotland-Samoa game and even more so by the Ireland-Fiji game from last weekend. What a sight to behold. The contrast between Ireland and Fiji could not be greater.
Joe Schmidt’s side are the epitome of structure, gaining territory through excellent tactical kicking and pinning Fiji down in the back half. Their play off set pieces was excellent and their defence well drilled, advancing as a unit with tremendous line speed. But for all of Ireland’s structural qualities, they lack x-factor.
This is in direct contrast to Fiji who have x-factor in spades but could with more playing time together would have a chance to develop the structural foundations that could catapult them into the Tier 1 bracket of rugby nations.
If you could combine Ireland’s structures with Fiji’s x-factor and counter attacking skill, it would be quite something – but alas we can only dream.
(AP Photo/Kamil Krzaczynski)
One of the first things I noticed was the quality of passing and offloading by the Fijians. When in space, they were able to throw long laser like passes to the advantage of their receiving teammates. The receiver never had to break stride and it was always a nice catchable height.
The willingness and ability to offload has long been a strength. Time and time again under the face of extreme pressure from a rapidly advancing defender, a Fijian player was able to use quick hands to move the ball along and maintain the movement. Perhaps we take these things for granted but the consistency and quality of their short and long passing gave Ireland problems all night.
Their intuitive skill when in open space was also a sight to behold. Both wingers showed an ability to quickly put the ball on the boot and then chase to either regather or place the Irish defence under pressure. The ability to do this under pressure while hugging the sideline was first rate.
Photo: Martin Seras Lima
But for all their strength on the counter and open running play, Fiji showed a certain unexpected stability in the set pieces. The scrum was solid all night and was an even match for an Irish pack admittedly missing their frontline stars.
They kept things simple in the lineout, mostly throwing short and high with the odd gutsy deep throw (there was even one throw beyond the lineout when deep in their own 22).
The Fijian mentality to constantly run the ball has its drawbacks and they were caught running the ball from deep and it was perhaps only good fortune that they did not concede more penalties or turnovers from these misadventures.
As Kurtley Beale’s error against England at Twickenham showed, sometimes you have to play the percentages – if you are isolated and receive the ball in your 22 then take the safe option and punt it as long as you can or put the ball into the 10th row and live to fight another day.
But as the game wore on, the Fijians learned from the mistakes and they played the percentages both when exit kicking and also minimising the glory offloads and taking the ball into contact instead.
Watching Ireland and Fiji play was to see two contrasting styles – ala the old days of the a disciplined Andre Agassi playing a fearless serve and volleying Pat Rafter. Ireland-Fiji was just a truly enjoyable match to watch and reminded me of why they say rugby is the game they play in heaven.
We must not let the Island nations flounder and world rugby must find a way to create a sustainable future for these nations.
richard
Guest
"WR gives NZ 15 million pounds every 4 yrs" you don't seriously expect anyone to believe that,do you? Evidence? although I won't be holding my breath.
richard
Guest
Yes.I know.It's the old adage " tell a lie often enough,and people will start to believe it ' - Josef Goebbels.
DavSA
Guest
The Polynesian islands are in the unique position of having both the best human genetics predisposing them to rugby and also being economically and financially poor. Until World Rugby addresses the money and they wont as we saw from recent voting awarding the world cup to France ....that they are only driven by financial gain making all other statements of intent about growing the game etc. being nothing but lip service. Therefore expect the Islanders to continually export talent abroad . Nothing will change to their own countries national teams benefit . Prohibiting countries abroad from not allowing them to play for anyone beside their homeland will also deny many players opportunity and should not happen.
Brainstrust
Guest
No world rugby gives 15 million pounds to NZ every four years , the rest of the Pacific gets that money between them. The biggest difference is that NZ rugby has a budget of about 100 million pounds a year, so why do they need the extra 4 million a year whereas Samoa would double their budget. NZ threatened to boycott the 2015 world cup over payments not the 2011.
Midfielder
Guest
Just read this article and scanned through the posts. I am surprised no one has mentioned the growth of League over the last 12 years in particular... Its kinda typical of Rugby over the years have massive competition and ignore it. Just out of interest, the A-League has I think 3 Fijians playing in it and the NRL well my guess close to 100. Tonga V England 35K mostly Tongan fans... add Football is slowly growing and maybe the hold on PI by rugby is no longer the case ... especially if League runs an annual end of year tournament .
piru
Roar Rookie
Rugby needs a state of origin law where you are tied to a nation by where you grew up. NZ would become no better than a Wales. Given they would have had much the same teams they've always had under this rule, I'm not sure by what metric you are judging.
piru
Roar Rookie
Because it's easy, and the All Blacks are the bad guys - poor rugby commentary 101
piru
Roar Rookie
Brainstrust - 2008 called, it wants it's outdated and incorrect argument back
richard
Guest
Wow,you really believe this,don't you? How are we the biggest thieves? NZ is a nursery for pretty much every country,other than SA and Argentina.And that incl. coaches. And why should NZ have covered the costs to W.Samoa? As others have pointed out,WR gives millions to the islands.Where has it all gone? Well,look no further than their PM ( who also happens to be Chairman of the SRU).For all that,I wouldn't have had a problem with NZ if they had covered the costs. Another fairy tale.NZ threatened to boycott ( during the 2011 RWC) due to the rising costs of staging the event.Funnily enough,they had the backing of the ARU,for that very reason.And recent events have confirmed NZ's fears with France being given the 2023 RWC,solely based on how much revenue they could generate for the WR. Your last point,sorry,wrong again.Nothing to do with NZ.The PI countries have made it clear they would only come in as separate entities,a composite side won't work as their are too many cultural differences between the islands.And to put it all on NZ is laughable,Aus have hardly been an advocate of PI rugby. Your points are risible.
Brainstrust
Guest
NZ rugby are the biggest financial thieves in world rugby and they do more damage to the Pacific nations that way that anyone else. Other nations stealing the Pacific island players matter little. The biggest laugh is this so called charity, with friends like NZ you don't need enemies. NZ played a match In Samoa and SAmoan rugby were faced with massive costs. This is like saying I am doing you a favour by having dinner with you because I am doing it free of charge, you just have to pay my costs including a flights and a five star hotel, etc. NZ threatened to boycott the world cup to make sure all the money was going to the big 10. They made sure the PAcific islands were eliminated from super rugby ages ago.
Matt
Guest
What is it that we actually want? As I see it a sustainably competitive rugby nation requires four major ingredients: 1. A strong playing base 2. Good development structures at youth and amateur level 3. High performance academies 4. A critical number of players employed as full time professionals The truth is that the Pacific Island NATIONS only have No 1. And even then there seems to be confusion as to the actual playing stocks of the Pacific nations. There are 110,000 people living in the nation of Tonga and 195,000 people living in the nation of Samoa. But there are over 60,000 people of Tongan heritage and over 150,000 of Samoan heritage living in New Zealand. World rugby are trying to grow the development structures and high performance academies of the islands, but these are continually undermined by local politics and managerial incompetence. Conversely in New Zealand there is long standing youth development structures, world leading high performance programs and numerous professional opportunities. This is why we see a high number of New Zealand players of Pacific heritage playing for Tonga and Samoa. Pacific island nations also benefit from large numbers of their players being paid to be professionals in foreign club competitions. So in short World Rugby and the Tier 1 nations have already 'saved' the Pacific nations. Tonga and Samoa could have no local players and still be competitive simply through heritage players (this is how we get the Rugby League World Cup). If World Rugby's primary mandate is to grow the game then they are better off investing in nations that can achieve all the above mentioned requirements for sustainable success. Hence their spending in the nations like Canada, the USA, Russia etc. Anyway, all of this debate stems from some peoples idea that sport is about genetic lineage vs genetic lineage, wherein reality is that sport is nation vs nation. So a person of Pacific HERITAGE is not necessarily a representative of a Pacific NATION by common definition. During rugby's professional era heritage has been a convenient loophole through which national teams of BOTH Tier 1 and Tier 2 status teams have fought for playing resources. Swings and roundabouts.
Cuw
Guest
yeah Matavesi shud start and Volvo shud finish. more interesting is how Volvo developed after being dropped by Crusaders. usually its the other way around :)
sheek
Guest
Peter K, I don't understand this reasoning. Playing for your country is not like playing for your club. You can move around as many clubs in your career as you want. But each person has only one country, one commitment, in their life at any one time. Sure, people move around for all sorts of reasons. But those reasons ought to be about seeking a better, & safer life, somewhere else. Not changing countries purely for economic opportunism. I guess that's why we will always have wars. Sooner or later, people have to decide where they stand, & what they're willing to fight & die for. In sport & business we might be able to treat national boundaries with impunity. But in war, we're forced to decide.
Barham
Guest
Presumably you'll be volunteering the hundreds of millions that has been spent on Twickenham by the RFU first then? I Owning a ground also means building it.
Pavid Docock
Guest
I'll have to keep an eye out for Matavesi. Peceli Nacebe will be another excellent option at the 10 spot when he recovers from his injury. Flyhalf stocks look promising for the Fijians.
sheek
Guest
Everyone is getting their knickers in a knot about who belongs where. There is such a lack of respect for national identity, with so many players coming & going, that internationals won't exist in the near future. We'll have city-states playing each other & no-one will care where the players come from, as long as they win the silverware. Kinda like European football right now. Obviously the majority of sporting fans appear to be okay about this, so it will come to pass. The rest of the rugby world chose to ignore Pacific Islands rugby when professionalism came. So they did the only thing they could, they took their rugby talent to other countries, sometimes under flags of convenience. So if you don't respect national identities, then we get what we deserve - the demise of international rugby.
Bakkies
Guest
There are more tier 1 v tier 2 internationals planned after the agreement on the so called global calendar a few months back. Won't come in to play until after the RWC
Jacko
Guest
And really, Islanders are one third of pro players but no reps on the board? You mean people with Island heritage??? So a lot of Aus and NZ white players are really 4 nations players because that is there heritage???
Bakkies
Guest
Not sure what McKee has against Josh Matavesi as he is a far better player then Volavola
Jacko
Guest
NZ a got beaten by NZ b