What a shame! [1]
Friday, December 4, 2009 - 05:53. Updated on Monday, May 26, 2014 - 18:44.
Editor,
It is a great thing to have David Campese in the Tonga Rugby Union but I think Tonga needs more than just Campo's magic to be successful. 'Ikale Tahi's recent thrashing by Ireland A 48-19 (with 7 tries) and Scotland A 38-7 (with 5 tries) is a testament that Tonga Rugby needs many miracle interventions.
Too much infighting and political infestation within the union is a bad disease for the sport. Lack of transparency and accountability of the union administration is infectious to the players' ability which depletes any attractiveness of playing for Tonga.
Hawaii Rugby Union officers arranged for a test match between the 'Ikale Tahi and US Eagle to be held in Honolulu. The match would have been held last month which it was agreed by the USA Rugby and TRU bosses. However, IRB decided that TRU needed to fix its problems first before they (IRB) will do anything more for Tonga Rugby. What a complete shame!
The Tonga rugby bosses must have less exclusive dinners, and invest more time scouting talents both at home and oversea, groom them in a year time to be ready for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. One year may not be enough preparation time for this level of competition but it is the best you can do now. Keep changing coaches and managers at will does not help the cause at all. Maybe the executives are the ones that need to be sacked. Anyone that have associated or a part of the era that TRU can't account for its finance needs to be completely out of the picture and possibly go to jail.
Tonga has the honor of playing the opener with the IRB No. 1 rank All Blacks and it will be a shame for all the Tonga rugby fans when the ABs scores a century against us. When we look at the results of the 'Ikale Tahi's recent outings with Ireland and Scotland second teams, one can only wonder how much the Kiwis want to thrash us on the opening world cup game.
The 'Ikale Tahi World Cup team of 2007 was a great one but unfortunately, most of the players will be too old (by the world standard) to compete again in 2011. Please TRU make the citizens and rugby fans proud of your labor. I think this can be achieved by making sure that the TRU officers are clear of politics. They must be full of honor and integrity, be rugby oriented with a vision of utilitarianism.
Respectfully,
'Aisea T. Tu'ikolovatu
(rugby fan)