Tonga not invited to Samoa Sevens [1]
Monday, February 2, 2015 - 18:52. Updated on Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - 10:50.
By Finau Fonua
Tonga was not on the invite list for Sevens competition of the Youth Commonwealth Games in Samoa this September. The Youth Games is a sporting event for athletes under the age of 18.
On January 23, the Commonwealth Games Federation announced its invite list for 14 teams, which included 8 teams for the men’s competition and 6 teams for the women’s competition. The teams invited for the Men’s Tournament are: South Africa, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Cayman Islands, England, Fiji, Samoa and Australia. The Women’s teams from Canada, Scotland, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands and Samoa. Tonga, however, was not on the list.
Despite being a regional team, Tonga apparently did not meet the selection criteria. The Commonwealth Games Federation stated “Working in partnership with World Rugby and applying a range of selection criteria, which has included past performance at Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games, evaluation of team competitive depth and regional inclusivity without compromising quality, a final selection of eight teams were invited to take part in the Men's competition and six to participate in the Women's event.”
The snub is another low for Tonga Sevens. Tonga has been excluded from this weekend’s Wellington Sevens tournament after losing its qualification seat to Papua New Guinea. It will be the first time a Tongan team has failed to attend the Wellington Sevens. Tonga Sevens also failed to qualify for last year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.