Gregor Paul: Why All Blacks aren't the real culprits in Pasifika rugby travesty

6 June 2021 Sevu Reece talks about facing home country Fiji in the upcoming All Blacks test.

OPINION:

The Pacific Islands have, for decades, been the least deserving victims of an international rugby culture that is driven by greed and self-interest.

They have found themselves, unwittingly, in an almost Darwinian world of natural selection, where, as the financially weakest, they continually find themselves clinging on at the margins.

Periodically it feels like the Islands may be able to survive in this survival of the fittest dystopia, but the 102-0 humiliation suffered by Tonga at the hands of the All Blacks has brought many old feelings to the surface – demanded that a vexed subject once again dominate the agenda.

It's almost too difficult to recall all the different ways the Islands have been shafted – from Super Rugby exclusion in 1996, to unfair playing schedules at World Cups, to Samoa on one occasion having to play an England side that somehow managed to sneak a 16th player on to the field for a full minute.

At the heart of this travesty is the established rugby world's determination to pursue the twin goals of wanting to help themselves to the endless stream of talent all three Islands produce, while doing all they can to ensure that none of Fiji, Samoa or Tonga can ever become a force on the international stage.

Siua Maile of Tonga and Akira Ioane of the All Blacks. Photo / Photosport

We have the likes of the Irish Rugby Union, operating so-called project player schemes where they assess where their own talent pipeline is weak, scour the world for foreign options and then find players such as Bundee Aki to invest in, offering them club contracts that come with a virtual guarantee of international caps once they have qualified through residency.

We have various French clubs who have set up academies in Fiji under the guise of providing opportunity, but in reality, so they can hand pick the best for themselves.

We have educational establishments in New Zealand who invite schools from the Islands to come over to play and then persuade the best ones to stay.

Sevu Reece, Shannon Frizell and Vaea Fifita came to the All Blacks via that route.

Rugby Australia has allowed its Super Rugby teams to recruit one non-Wallaby eligible player per year – seen by some as a cynical means to sign emerging Pacific Island talent and capture them for the Wallabies.

And we have World Rugby refusing to force through proposed changes to the eligibility laws that would immediately transform the strength of the Island teams - a refusal that flies in the face of their stated aim of wanting the best players to be at each World Cup.
Wherever we look there are parallel universes that we can't see but know are there. One of those would be visible in the Pasifika series because Reece and Frizell would be playing against the All Blacks, not for them.

We could extrapolate that further as more than half the Wallabies and All Blacks squads identify as Pasifika.

Fijian-born Sevu Reece could feature for the All Blacks against his home country this weekend. Photo / Photosport

There is an alternative universe where Fiji, Tonga and Samoa are part of the Rugby Championship and able to offer eligible players something financially compatible with what can be earned by playing for the All Blacks and Wallabies.

But no one can plot the road map to access these parallel universes, largely because there are too many people to hold responsible for fixing this indescribable mess.

What is worth mentioning ahead of the second test in the Pasifika series – one that will likely produce another mismatch, albeit not as dramatically as the slaughtering of Tonga - is that the list of villains in this sorry saga may indeed be appallingly long, but it does not include the current All Blacks players and coaching staff.

There was a detectable sense after the match at Mt Smart that some felt that the All Blacks needed to apologise for winning by as much as they did and even admit fault for agreeing to play the game.

The Islands are hindered by injustice, but to claim the All Blacks were complicit in this because they hammered Tonga is to earn an honorary PhD in missing the point.

The All Blacks' job is to play who they are asked to play and do it to the best of their ability – which they did and those who want to see the Islands handed a map to access their many alternative universes need to blame the real culprits.