The International Rugby Board (IRB) is sending a New Zealand auditing firm to audit the 2006 accounts of the Tonga Rugby Football Union, the chairman of the board of the TRFU, Sangstar Saulala said last night.

Speaking on Television Tonga, the chairman and two other directors of the board, Tu'i Uata and Tali Kavapalu, during their 30-minutes program rebutted claims that the chairman and some board members had mismanaged the affairs of the TRFU.

The chairman claimed that his new board was elected in 2005 to run the TRFU because "incompetence and mismanagement of the board" had resulted in a decline in the status of Tongan rugby.

Disputes claims

Tu'i Uata disputed claims of any mismanagement of TRU funds, and he said that such behaviour would be against the objective of why they wanted to become board members in the first place. He said that they did not want to become board members because of money, and they were all working for free. "If it was for money I would not be here, I'd be running my own business."

He said that they are building a new base for Tongan rugby to build on and that was to use only local coaches and select national teams only from local players. He said that if there was any deviation from this objective he would leave the board.

The chairman said that their strategy since they took over was to look after the players and the coaches. He said that the days of players playing for glory only was over, and now they had to be paid. In the past only the foreign coaches (selected by IRB) were well paid, while their Tongan counterparts were poorly paid. But they had done away with that approach and local coaches were well paid and players were paid as professional players.

With regards to how players are paid Tu'i Uata explained that the two Tongan teams currently competing in the IRB Pacific Cup Tournament had been given a lump sum allocation for their salaries. He said that it was entirely up to the management of the teams to decide the number of people who should be paid, and the more people to be paid, naturally, he said the less an individual would get.

Resigned

Meanwhile, there has been controversy over the new management style of the board. About a month ago three directors of the board resigned, claiming that the running of the board was unconstitutional and that the board had not had a formal meeting for a very long time, claiming that Sangstar Saulala and Tu'i Uata dictated the affairs of the board.

The announcement by Sangstar that the IRB was sending a New Zealand auditor to examine the accounts of the Tonga Rugby Football Union could put and end to wrangling by board members.