Sacrifices and opportunities: Life not too grim for former Force players

I wonder what Taniela Tupou thinks of the latest grumble from a former Western Force player.

Two days after Tupou’s family home in Tonga was swept away by Cyclone Gita’s 200 km/hr winds, new Melbourne Rebels captain Adam Coleman was on Wednesday reiterating how his ex-Force teammates had sacrificed so much in moving from Perth to the Victorian capital to continue their rugby careers.

“Just got off the phone with my brother from Tonga. Our house is gone already and the cyclone is not even there yet,” Tupou posted on his Instagram account.

“Not exactly what I wanted to hear but much love to all my Fams back home.

“Stay safe errbody.”

Thankfully, Tongan Thor’s family – it seems his mother Loisi and four sisters live in a tiny village outside the Tongan capital of Nuku’alofa – were unharmed.

But it brought into perspective what Tupou has given up to be in his position – which in a global context is extremely privileged in itself (do you know that a person on the average Australian salary of about $80,000 puts them in the top 0.19 per cent of incomes globally).

As a 16-year-old, he left Tonga to take up a rugby scholarship at Auckland’s Sacred Heart College. He was being chased by a few New Zealand Super Rugby sides, but after school moved to Australia as his brother was living in Brisbane.

He rose through club rugby in Brisbane to land a contract with the Queensland Reds and the hulking prop’s rapid rise was rewarded with a Wallabies debut against Scotland at Murrayfield at the end of last year.

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He’s only 21. He’s got a massive future. His YouTube montage clips are frightening. And he can be grateful that rugby has opened up plenty of doors already.

But as sacrifices go, to leave your family as a teenager and move to another country is daunting to say the least. Perhaps he had relatives already in New Zealand and a close school and local community that made it easier for him to settle in and thrive as a rugby player and young man.

Regardless, he deserves respect for taking the leap. Quite a few Pacific Island youngsters tread a similar path to New Zealand and Australia trying to set up their professional sporting careers.

(Credit: Sportography/QRU)

Why do they do it?

Well it can be a brilliant adventure for a start. And they’ve got great passion for the game.

But a large part of their decision is based on the potential to not only chase some good coin for themselves, but often provide for their families who remain at home.

The Nathan Hughes case is stark, and involves the reprehensible context of financial inequality between rugby nations that World Rugby should address.

In late 2016, the No.8 spoke candidly before making his debut for England at Twickenham against the country of his birth, Fiji.

It was because he could earn a match fee of around £22,000 per game – that’s A$38,000 per Test – for England as opposed to his beloved Fiji, where players get about A$800 per Test.

Hughes could set up his family – and extended family – for life.

“That’s the decision I made – I play my rugby to support my family and put shelter over their heads,” he said.

Hughes, like Tupou, has made big sacrifices. Leaving your family at a young age with a lot of talent and plenty of hope takes a lot of guts.

So why do the Force players still seem stuck on the sacrifices, and not on the opportunities ahead?

Coleman spoke to the Daily Telegraph about the sacrifice of some players taking kids out of school in Perth, and with their wives moving to Melbourne.

That’s – according to a recent survey – moving from the seventh most liveable city in the world to the most liveable city in the world.

And I don’t want to seem cold-hearted and undersell sacrifices made by these Force players. Of course a lot of them would still want to be in Perth where they were established. But it happened almost six months ago.

I can’t recall any Australian professional rugby player in the past signing a deal with another Super Rugby team, which means moving cities, and being as downcast as the Force players.

Their industry is fast-moving and flexible. Things can change quickly for better or worse. Isn’t every new contract an opportunity to continue your career?

Yeah, I know, they will argue that the Force were axed because of Rugby Australia mismanagement.

(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

But the Force couldn’t cut it. Results were poor. Crowds were down.

I’d imagine Coleman, Pek Cowan and Matt Hodgson – a few of the ex-Force players who have spoken about the difficult times following the club’s Super Rugby chop – would rationally concede with a nod in agreement if you told them the local tomato cannery closed down because not enough people were buying tinned tomatoes.

Or the local car dealership shut its doors because they didn’t sell enough cars. The Force didn’t sell enough. It’s as simple as that. Businesses thrive. Businesses fail.

What happens to the bloke who has worked assembling cars at Ford or Holden for the last 20 years? There are no more jobs in Australia. The whole industry has disappeared. They have families and mortgages.

The former Force players have probably all got good intentions. But maybe they’ve been emboldened by RUPA, Twiggy Forrest and a contingent of angry Force fans. There are plenty that aren’t Force fans too that believe the Rebels should’ve got the chop.

Sure a lot of hard work went into keeping the Force alive. The players are tough men who put their bodies and minds through plenty. And there are sacrifices no doubt.

They have resilience in bucketloads on the field. And the tragic death of Dan Vickerman, a father of two boys, was evidence professional sportsmen struggle with the transition away from their chosen field.

But is it not legitimate to ask for a bit of perspective? Isn’t sacrifice the single mum working two jobs to provide for her kids?

Isn’t sacrifice the soldier leaving his wife and kids for a six-month tour of duty? Isn’t sacrifice the parent who quits their job to be by their child’s hospital bedside as they go through chemotherapy?

It’s been almost six months since the Force were cut. Only some have remained in Perth, Cowan and Heath Tessman among them.

There’s sacrifice and there’s opportunity too. Can’t the Force players that have moved to the Rebels, Waratahs, Brumbies, Reds, Japan, France – wherever – just be grateful they’ve got another chance?