From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 15, no. 1, March 2000.

The relationship between the Tongan Rugby Union and South Africa will be further consolidated this year as more Tongans have been invited to study and to play rugby in South Africa.

Before he retired on March 22 this year, the Chairman of the Tongan Rugby Union, Clive Edwards, said that five Rugby Scholarships had been offered for Tongan students to study and to play rugby in South African universities this year, “and six Tongan players have been invited to train and to play provincial rugby there.

“The South African assistance to our rugby is better than any that we have received from any other country, and they have helped us a lot, particularly last year.”

Coach

Clive said that they would continue to use David Waterstone as the head coach for the ‘Ikale Tahi.

“We believe that our approach to coaching last year was very effective. There was a local coach to look after the boys here, then when we went to South Africa there was special coach for the forwards, and a coach for the backs, then David Waterstone was the coach who came in and put the whole team together.” Clive said it would be difficult to bring in experienced Tongan players such as Willy O or ‘Isitolo Maka as the local coach of the ‘Ikale Tahi unless they were to come and live here permanently.

Clive said that despite the problems during Tonga’s World Cup match with England, the ‘Ikale Tahi was very popular and had a lot of public support in the United Kingdom. “During the World Cup were given civic mayoral receptions wherever we went. We were also staying in first class hotels while the other teams stayed in halls. In all our games the stadium was full.

“We have gained a lot of respect following the World Cup. For the first time, we have been invited to play the All Blacks. In the past when ever we tour New Zealand we always play the New Zealand 15, New Zealand A. We have never played the All Blacks until the World Cup, and we will play two games against them at the end of June and early July this year.”

Italy coming

Clive said that other international fixtures to be played at Nuku’alofa’s Teufaiva Stadium this year would be a test match against Italy. “Italy is coming to revenge their loss because they believe that they have a good team. They have beaten both England and Scotland before and they thought they should have beaten us in the World Cup. I met some of their officials during the World Cup and they were very disappointed that they lost.”

The ‘Ikale Tahi is programmed to play four international matches at Teufaiva this year, against Italy, Japan, USA and the Manu Samoa.

Clive said that the long-term plan for the ‘Ikale Tahi was to reduce the reliance on overseas players. “The policy that I am trying to establish is to use our local players, so that we could raise the standard of rugby in this country. We believe that the talents are here, and the South Africans also believe that. Our players need to be trained to understand the game properly. One of the biggest problems with the ‘Ikale Tahi is the number of times that we have been penalised. It has been very frustrating when we are penalised simply because of the boys not knowing how to play the game properly, but if we know the rules and played it properly we would be very hard to be beat.”

Clive said that the selection of Tongan players who were playing top class rugby overseas had always been very difficult, “and I want to stress that the contracts of Tongan players in New Zealand and Australia have been drafted in such a way that they will not be able to play for Tonga,” he said.

“You must remember that when players come home they want the kind of money they are getting overseas where they have to pay for virtually everything, comparing with local players who also need money. So when they come to play for us they ask for this and that and we just can’t meet their demands.”

Clive said that money remained the main obstacle for the development of the ‘Ikale Tahi. “Our budget for last year was about $1.8 million. My intention was that after three years, to complete what I set out to do so that I can retire from rugby.  I also would like to secure a regular sponsorship, and I went to the UK last year for a number of meetings to secure a regular source of funds, and during the next week or so, we will be receiving a contribution of about $200,000. We are also working on other sponsorship arrangements of about $2-3 million which should come in over the next few years,” he said.

“When we took over there was a debt of $193,000. There were debts everywhere, and we tried to slowly pay them off while trying to get things to move along, and we now have reduced the debt to half,” he said.
Clive retired on March 22 as chairman and is replaced by Tu‘ivanuavou Vaea.