Tongans furious at 'second-class' treatment

9.30am

WOLLONGONG - Tongan rugby coach Jim Love said his players felt treated like second-class citizens after being booked on a flight to leave the World Cup in Australia less than 12 hours after their final match.

Speaking after his side's 7-24 loss to Canada last night, Love said his players were angry at having to catch the first plane home and that they might consider boycotting the next World Cup.

"That's not the way a team should leave the tournament," Love said.

"We feel as though we've been treated like second-class citizens."

Tonga's final pool match ended at about 2215 (local time) time in Wollongong, about an hour's drive from Sydney, and the squad were due to fly home at O600 this morning.

"If the IRB (International Rugby Board) doesn't do anything about it then maybe we should look at not coming in the future and just leave it to the big boys," Love said.

"They (the Tongan players) have been under a lot of pressure. So maybe they will look at that and think is it worth committing and also leaving their families at home and suffering on the financial side of things?".

Tonga finished bottom of pool D after losing all four games but Love said the draw was unfairly stacked against them.

While New Zealand and Wales, who both qualified for the quarterfinals, played their pool games over 22 days, Tonga's four matches were squeezed into just 14 days.

"I believe Tonga is a very good side and the only way we can improve is for the people who organise this tournament to give us six or seven days' break between games -- not play four games in 14 days," Love said.

"It's just too hard on players and players just can't come through recovery processes that quick.

"We've played a lot of players with injuries and it has been detrimental to individuals. Players having to back up for four games in 14 days is totally ludicrous."

Love also took issue at the IRB's insistence that teams could not participate in the opening ceremony, saying it robbed them of a great experience.

"We all went into a hall and watched the opening ceremony and it was commented by a lot of players that it would have been great if we were at that opening," he said.

"We believe that the opening ceremony was something that we all knew (signalled that) the World Cup had started and (we wanted) to be part of that, and we were ostracised by that and I don't know why.

"They do it (invite all athletes) at the Olympics and I think it would be great if we could do that at the World Cup, just so we could get the feeling and enjoy the moment."

Love is the latest in a long line of disgruntled coaches to criticise the tournament schedule, with Italian coach John Kirwan also launching a scathing attack on the format.

"We tried to put in a complaint about it but because we went through the repechage we qualified too late," Love said.

Canadian first five-eighth Bob Ross, the longest serving international in world rugby after making his debut in 1989, said he was disillusioned by the widening gap between rich and poor rugby playing nations.

"We are an amateur nation and since the game turned professional in 1995 we've been left a lot further behind that what we wanted," Ross said.

"It's tough being Canada and it's tough being Uruguay or Tonga or any of the other smaller teams and it would be really nice if there was a bit of IRB money to go around.

"It's getting tougher and tougher and it's only going to get worse."

- REUTERS

Full World Cup coverage