Pacific Islands eye rugby's riches

The rough playing fields of the Pacific Islands produce a wealth of talent. But as ANGELA GREGORY discovered in Samoa, the grass roots are struggling to survive


It is another hot and sticky Saturday afternoon on the northeastern coastal outskirts of Apia. The rugby season is officially over and yet the players still charge up and down the field on Upolu Island, spraying sweat over a small but enthusiastic crowd.

The spectators are split into two camps, fiercely loyal to their teams from Moa'taa village and Magiagi, an inland village in Apia.

The rivalry is keen. But it is a "friendly" game with a linesman waving a large leafy branch as a flag.

These humble villages are fertile breeding grounds of rugby greats.

Moa'taa is home to the Samoan relatives of Auckland-born former All Black, and now Manu Samoa coach, Michael Jones, and the birthplace of Chiefs fullback Loki Crichton. Samoan-born rugby stars include present All Blacks Mils Muliaina and Jerry Collins.

There is huge pride in the achievements of this rugby-fanatical Pacific nation, which for a century has loved the raw physical confrontation of the game. But now professional rugby's lucrative overseas contracts are making a big impact.

Harry Schuster, a lawyer and secretary of the Samoa Rugby Football Union (SRFU), says when he was growing up his grandparents would not allow him to play rugby because "you don't eat it - go to school and get an education".

These days rugby skills are seen as a ticket out of a subsistence lifestyle for players and their relatives and "the player is not just earning money for himself but is taking it for the whole family".

In Apia at Avele College, a 700-student high school, head boy and loose forward Dean Fepuleai smiles as he confirms he is on the shortlist for a rugby scholarship to New Zealand.

The 17-year-old admits he would eventually rather play for the All Blacks - "of course" - than for Manu Samoa.

For Fepuleai it is a means to an end. He can earn money to send to his family back home and, he hopes, will improve his chance of studying medicine in New Zealand.

Selu Tuala, the college's sports master and coach of the first XV, says his best players are spotted in school rugby tournaments in New Zealand. "It is very bad for Samoan rugby but New Zealand gives them the opportunity to improve their game."

The boys are snatched up by clubs and they stay.

"The boys make good money and clubs provide them with jobs," Tuala says. "To them that's their future rather than coming back here and upgrading the game."

Last year, the college lost one of its best players, 18-year-old David Smith, to Mt Albert Grammar after he was noticed while touring with the national Samoa school-age team.

Solidly built Smith has adjusted well to life in Auckland, living in Panmure with his aunt and uncle.

A scholarship covers his accommodation, transport costs and rugby gear.

He shyly admits that people are already talking All Black potential.

This year - with his ball-handling skills rapidly improving - the winger and fullback made the school's first XV, the Auckland secondary school northern region side and the New Zealand secondary schools' sevens team.

Smith says Avele College and his family are very proud of him - especially his mother, who went to all his games back home.

Smith aims to play for the Blues by the time he is 21, wants to play for the All Blacks, and is keen to see his plantation-grower father benefit from some of his earnings.

But as these promising young players are routinely transplanted into New Zealand and other international rugby turf, their home teams and country are left depleted of talent and struggling financially.

Every Saturday in central Apia, Marist-St Joseph's Sports Club president Tom Annandale and executive member Ricky McFall sell $5 raffle tickets with a complementary sausage to raise money to pay the loans which financed their clubhouse, stadium and gym.

McFall hopes some of the money can help to send their Marist rugby team - one of the strongest Samoan sides - to the Malaysian tens in Kuala Lumpur later this year.

He would like to to see some money coming from royalties from the poaching of Marist rugby talent that sees the best players picked in Samoa by overseas scouts.

"The scouts are coming from Europe and are hungry for our players, but we get no commission."

With a shrug, McFall adds: "At least it's good for the players."

Annandale says the club can't afford to hold its top players. Manu Samoa five-eighth Roger Warren was snapped up this year to play in Britain for Leicester Tigers, whose playing roster also includes three Tuilagi brothers from Tonga and other Pacific Islanders.

Marist prop and hooker Fouina Sua despairs at having to scrape up money.

"We do our own fundraising. That's why it's really hard - very laborious work at times, but I do it for the sake of the game."

On the Marist fields - about a 10-minute drive from Apia - 17-year-old fullback Lose Siemsen practises kicking between the posts while he waits for a touch rugby game to begin.

Siemsen, from Alamagoto village at the bottom of Mt Vaea, is aiming for the top - Manu Samoa - "cos I'm Samoan", he says with pride.

But he is also more than willing to incorporate that goal with playing in Europe for a time.

In the Marist clubrooms, shelves groan with cups, trophies and framed photos of rugby stars.

Next door, the gym is bare except for a few weights. The lack of development in the local rugby scene irks Alan Grey, son of the famous Aggie Grey, whose Apia hotel remains in the family.

Grey, a former player and coach for Samoa, says the problems are considerable.

"A lot of our young kids want to play rugby and have lots of potential but there is not enough emphasis by the union to address that. A large number need assistance and guidance on the field but are not getting that."

Grey, deputy chairman of the SRFU, says the union has appointed a development director and is now working with schools to get teachers on side.

"I'm very concerned about Manu Samoa's future," he says.

"It will be some years before we can get back to the stage we were in 1995, but I believe there is a lot of potential here still to be seen."

Grey says rugby gets generous support from Sports Lotto in Samoa compared with other codes and he has reached into his pockets. The Weekend Herald understands Grey has given a few hundred thousand dollars to the Samoan union but he sidesteps when asked the figure.

"I have been fortunate by using the hotel money, not mine - put in as sponsorship."

He quickly diverts praise to Sir Michael Fay, who "quite out of the blue" offered help to Manu Samoa after the 1995 World Cup.

"We would have gone down much faster if not for his help," Grey says.

Over a decade, Sir Michael has provided $4.5 million to the team in payments to players and management.

Of the present team, about half also have contracts in Britain, Japan, Italy or France.

Schuster says the Samoa union, which is "barely in the black", gets £150,000 ($425,000) from the International Rugby Board in development grants, plus some extra money for age-grade international tours.

Each year, Lotto in Samoa provides $120,000. Further revenue comes from sponsorships, particularly the Samoan brewery Vailima, and gate takings.

"The gate charges are kept low to be affordable for the locals," Schuster says. "We pay the costs of the game and end up with a deficit."

As the IRB Oceania rugby representative, Schuster would like more support from the New Zealand and Australian unions.

"Tier-two nations such as Fiji, Samoa and Tonga can be very competitive but they need development money and access to players," Schuster says.

He believes the IRB is sympathetic but that countries understandably want to lock up the players in whom they have invested.

"Another point of view is that it is important to promote and grow rugby as a sport, to keep people interested ... have a World Cup that is competitive with more than just eight main players." A better balancing act is needed, he says.

Schuster argues that players with dual citizenship should still have a choice even if they have already represented a country internationally, as was allowed until a few years ago when the IRB changed the eligibility rules.

He wants more pressure on the New Zealand union to stop contracting Pacific players on the basis they can be eligible only for New Zealand.

"The IRB has to realise that, irrespective of any contracts, players should be released for national duties. Some youths are being captured young by the NZRFU to represent New Zealand, yet they will never play for the All Blacks."

Schuster wants a one-year stand-down to give Pacific Islanders a chance to play for their home country after representing another.

He also wants changes to gatetakings rules so that tour profits can be shared.

"The cost of touring or hosting tours is crippling for Samoa, and it doesn't help that we can't telecast live out of Apia," Schuster says.

Samoan Prime Minister and SRFU chairman Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi also wants to see his people allowed greater choice and plans to keep the issue on the agenda at the Pacific Forum meeting.

"It is extremely unfair to tie players down for life through contracts that stop them playing for other unions," Tuilaepa says. He perceives the IRB as increasingly in favour of pulling up the underdogs to raise the standard of the sport after positive discussions with IRB officials, where he sensed a softening of attitudes and "clearing up of misunderstandings".

He suggests All Black selectors should pick their best top 30 or 40 and leave the "discards" for the Pacific Islands.

"Let us have what you do not want. I am quite sure for those Samoans we can turn them into good players - we may get a few who slip through their screening."

He is excited by the newly formed Pacific Islanders team which he is confident is "here to stay".

Despite suggestions the Pacific side weakens individual countries, the Samoan High Commissioner in New Zealand, Feesago Fepulea'i, believes the team has lifted the profile of island rugby which will help to fund its development.

Gate profits of about $350,000 will be divided between the Samoa, Tonga and Fiji unions.

"The talent is there - put them together and they can hoof it with anyone else," Feesago says.

Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni points out that in the game between the Pacific Islanders and the All Blacks last month more players of Samoan heritage played for the All Blacks - Tana Umaga, Mils Muliaina, Jerry Collins and Kevin Mealamu - than the Pacific Island team.

Telefoni's eyes light up when he recalls the "remarkable" Umaga appointment to the All Black captaincy.

"The best thing for Samoa this century," he laughs, only half joking. "Everyone in Samoa gets goose bumps when they see Tana Umaga run on to the field with the All Blacks."

Samoa is a country where rugby posts rate as national icons alongside churches.

Rugby-mad kids wrap coconuts in cloth to use as balls in spontaneous games and during the season rugby is the preoccupation on Saturdays.

If Manu Samoa wins a game people walk round with their chests puffed out - and Samoans' fierce pride in their country extends to their children and grandchildren born overseas.

The sports editor of the Samoa Observer, Keni Ramese Lesa, says Samoans regard the All Blacks as another Samoan team and share their emotional ups and downs.

"They identify strongly with them. When the All Blacks lost the World Cup everyone here lost interest. When the All Blacks win, it is front-page news."

Lance Polu, editor of the weekly Le Samoa, sees the All Blacks benefiting at Samoa's expense, even from the new Pacific Islanders team, where the best players are easily identified.

But Polu says ambitious Samoan players have no option but to take up offers from overseas.

"Rugby has deteriorated so much here, so if they want money and opportunities they have to go."

Polu says Samoan families increasingly recognise the opportunities. "If a young person is not doing so well academically then they say, 'Go to sports - you can make more than a lawyer does'."

On the southern side of Upolo Island, Lepa Lotofaga school principal Tuputala Lene is brazenly antirugby.

"I limit sport at school. No parent has come and said, 'Teach my child to play rugby'. Always the parents want their children to go to university and get a good job, so I am pursuing their ambitions."

Lene says rugby is a big deal in the villages, with buses and transport regularly arranged to the big matches in Apia about an hour's drive away.

But she says the national game is tiring out her students.

"Following their chores, like collecting nuts and fixing meals, rugby is the highlight of the evening. When do they find time to do their study?"

And the adults are fanatical, she says. "They are not doing their plantations because they are so rugby minded. If they can't go to university they should learn fa'a Samoa, be involved in the village, cultivating the land, being taught to be good matais - now there is not enough planning for cropping and fishing."

Samoan sports minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa also sees a problem with the rugby obsession.

"Recruitment is starting earlier and earlier, targeting schoolboys by offering them educational scholarships."

The families are usually very happy with the lucrative opportunities, Fiame says. "But the sports elite are often the future leaders. If we lose our elite sports people we are losing our leaders."

* Angela Gregory and photographer Dean Purcell's visit was sponsored by the Pacific Co-operation Foundation.