Support for Oceania rugby [1]
Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - 10:00. Updated on Thursday, February 18, 2016 - 18:53.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 16, no. 2, September 2001.
Bob Wallace the Secretary General of the International Rugby Board visited Tonga at the end of July, as part of a tour of Oceania that took him to Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.
Bob said that his visit to Oceania, “is to hear, and to see the Unions of the region,” and after he returned to his main office in Dublin, Northern Ireland he would make a formal recommendation to the Rugby Unions in Oceania on how to improve their operations.
He said that Oceania was one of six rugby regions of the world that were under the development mandate of the International Rugby Board, the other five were Africa, Asia, America, Europe, and the Middle East. The IRB contributed about $6 million pounds annually for the development of Rugby throughout the world, and Tonga last year received $75,000 Pounds Sterling from the IRB.
Bob said that Tonga, Samoa and Fiji had made enormous contributions to the development of World Rugby, but because rugby was developing very fast in other regions of the world, particularly Europe, he warned that islands unions should work harder to maintain their position in the top 12 by making sure that the unions had good governnance, a viable plan, and good local competition.
Bob said he was very impressed with the enthusiasm of the Tongan Rugby Union to develop Tongan rugby, and sympathised with all the problems that small unions such as Tonga had to overcome. “There are no big corporate to become good sponsors. No large TV rights. But, of course, you have the athletes, and rugby is a national game in the islands. In the region a lot of people are touched by rugby, the sponsors, government and almost everyone is touched by rugby, so we have to find inventive ways to develop rugby,” he said.
“The tri-nations (between Tonga, Fiji and Samoa) is now among the top competitions in the world, but the difference of holding it off shore is that it will bring in more money.”
Bob also recommended for Tonga to make more commitment to the development of its 7-a-side, “Tonga’s names should be known globally and that can be achieved through the 7-a-side world circuit.”
Bob thought that there should be two Pacific Teams in the Super 12 tournament played annually between clubs from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
With regards to the availability of International Tongan players to represent Tonga, Bob agreed that the IRB should rewrite the rules to allow Tongan players who were not selected to play for either the All Blacks or the Wallabies to play for Tonga.