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My name is Dan Leo, and I'm a former Samoa Rugby player.
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I was dropped from our national team for exposing corruption within our union.
Our chairman, who is also the Prime Minister of our country, along with our senior politicians,
had mismanaged hundreds of thousands of pounds, most of which had been raised through public donations.
The evidence was ignored by the sport’s governing body, World Rugby.
Our national team then fell from 7th in the world to 17th in just three years.
In 2016, I set out to find the real stories behind why Pacific rugby is struggling,
and despite providing many of the world’s top rugby players to an ever-profitable sport,
the island nations of Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, increasingly find themselves on the edge of bankruptcy.
I couldn’t have known then that I would stumble across one of the biggest scandals in sport,
or what I'd learn about the men who were supposed to be the guardians of the game.
Chairman of the Fiji Rugby Union, if he's convicted for manslaughter,
I think there's something wrong with that.
If it was a different Prime Minister, and wasn't part of the military, fine.
Frank can f**king make you disappear.
The big nations are writing what needs to be done and ignoring whatever you do.
Rugby basically can hang its head in shame because it is not fulfilling its own values.
We are Pacific Islanders, and this is our story.
It's a story about people,
about greed,
about power,
about the endless pursuit for more, and the precious things that are lost along the way.
The Pacific Islands of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa have a combined population of 1.5 million people.
Known for their sandy beaches and friendly smiles,
the Pacific way of life places community and family above all else.
Since the day it was first introduced, rugby has become the national sport and is the heart and soul of community life.
Nothing lifts these nations spirits, or brings people together, quite like the game of Rugby.
Known for bringing excitement, aggression and exceptional skill,
these three islands provide more than a quarter of the world’s professional rugby players and some of the biggest names in the sport.
Every year, Pacific expats send more than £300 million pounds back to these islands,
and rugby players alone contribute up to 20% of GDP.
Here in Fiji where the minimum wage is 10 times lower than their closest neighbours, Australia and New Zealand
rugby has become more than just a game, it’s a lifeline.
This was the case for Rupeni Caucaunibuca, one of the greatest rugby players of all time,
who went from one of the most remote villages in the world to international greatness,
So when I came to New Zealand, it's funny.
I can't even speak English, that's true.
I only understand 'yes, no, come, go'.
You know I left school early.
We lived in a small house.
I've got 4 sisters, me and my brother.
We struggled every day,
and I signed the contract, the first thing I did, I built one house.
When I finish the house and I go to see my Dad and I tell him 'hey, I built one new house for you'.
When he looked at me he starts to cry.
That's the reason I wanted to go to start my rugby.
With the difficulty of adapting to life overseas,
Rupeni would often disappear from his club and return to his family in Fiji.
It's not like you live in town.
Like you pay your house or your rent,
you know, living in the village, with your friends and your relatives.
Sometimes it made me, I didn't want to go back.
First time too for me, I'd ever seen that kind of money.
and from now, I've stopped international rugby, I find it hard.
but it's too late, I've already spent it all
for nothing...
Having grown up admiring Rupeni, it was sad to see him now struggling,
And with professional teams now queueing up to sign Rupeni’s 11-year old son,
I can’t help but wonder, perhaps even fear, what the future holds for the next generation of Pacific Rugby stars.
To try and understand why so many players are leaving to play overseas,
I want to find out what is going on with the Pacific Rugby unions themselves
and whether they are doing anything to protect these players.
Having coached Fiji to an Olympic Gold medal in 2016,
Ben Ryan has seen first-hand the challenges faced by Pacific rugby.
To see that Dubai tournament, the first one after I left
where one of the boys playing was not only unemployed, he was homeless
and he's playing international football for Fiji 7s team,
the Olympic champions.
3 months after winning an Olympic Games and that’s how they got treated.
It shows you how they feel about the players, that there’s just a big long line of them.
That if one of them doesn’t agree to not getting a contract, doing stuff for nothing or not having any job security
well, we’ll just get the next one, cause they’re all there, they keep coming.
The Chairman of the Fiji Rugby Union, if he's convicted for manslaughter
and he's then eligible still to be a Chairman of one of our world unions,
I think there's something wrong with that.
'The coup in 2000, and the subsequent mutiny in the ranks of the Army,
were so traumatic, they've left a permanent scar on the national conciousness.'
The leader of the last coup, Frank Bainimarama, is now Fiji's Prime Minister, and is also the President of Fiji Rugby.
His brother-in-law, Francis Kean, is Fiji Rugby’s Chairman, who was convicted of manslaughter after he beat a man to death.
Because he’d been found guilty of manslaughter, it got down graded because
all the witnesses didn’t show up of course they didn’t.
he only did about a week because Frank, his brother-in-law, got him out. However that was a sentence.
The fact that he’s the President of the Rugby Union means that there’s gonna be a political connection.
Now that’s just wrong, we should be splitting that up.
When you were captain of Fiji, did you have to have much contact with all those guys?
I know Frank. You don't want to mess with him.
I don't want to not be able to go back to Fiji,
because he's just won the election, I don't want to be saying anything bad.
and that's the thing, you don't want to mess with Frank.
Frank can f**king make you disappear.
They'll come into a gym and with two Army players and say you gotta pick these next week,
or knocks on doors for players in
the middle of the night from government employees asking them to do various things.
Players that won't get selected if perhaps their families support the opposition party.
I think there needs to be some stronger directive from World Rugby,
but ultimately if you allow it to happen because of the governance,
then we're in trouble.
Having both captained and managed Samoa, Pat Lam is one of the top coaches in the world,
so I want to get his thoughts on why Samoan rugby is at its lowest point ever.
Pat! How you going bud?
Good to see you, long time.
I always say leadership is always the answer it's always the problem.
If things are going really well in a rugby team business, family, look at the leaders. If it's not, look at the leaders.
The players are playing some high level rugby,
so there is the players to be one of the top teams in the world.
But to me, it comes back to complete organisation
I found in the islands sometimes there's people in those jobs
because it's their turn, no it should be whoever's
the best at the job get in and get the job done.
For me it's getting that whole management team right and organised,
so the players shouldn't be worried about when they come in
oh where's my pay? Where's my flights?
Who's doing this? Where's the gear? Why is this late?
It can't be that way because it creates the wrong mindset.
'Tonga's rugby players are celebrating a win of sorts with its rugby union paying overdue match fees.
One News revealed on tuesday that players had not been paid for recent tours and camps.'
So we didn't get paid for that whole tour and
we just asked a lot of questions and got the same answers I guess.
What's a match fee for Tonga?
£300, that's for 4 games, that's for the whole tour.
So £80 per game?
£80 per game.
We had the same with Samoa. We'd often play in sellout stadiums
around Europe for next to nothing, knowing that our opposition were getting
paid at times tens of thousands of pounds.
We didn't know if it was the game that was taking advantage of Samoa Rugby
or if it was our own officials that were taking advantage of us.
With the Tongan structure, there's only one guy on top
and on top of him as the Prime Minister, so it's kind of hard to
to combat that sort of style because politics can kind of take over anything.
We do want to change, we don't want to be the same old Tongan team year in year out.
Pacific Islanders are 30 times more likely to have a career in rugby than anyone else,
and with hundreds of professional players around the world
many choose to play for their adopted nations.
You hear lots of stories of sort of corruption and mismanagement
do you think that's something that sort of puts Pacific Islanders off coming and playing for the island teams?
Yeah I think it does. Personally, I think it does and I think
it has an effect on the way that guys look at the islands maybe.
'Manu Tuilagi, always a key man.'
My brothers playing for Samoa and you know and hearing about
all the problems that I don't have to go through playing for England.
Friends of mine have gone through it so
I think it's something that needs to look at and it needs to change.
I feel sorry for the boys out there because they're giving everything
you know some of them, that's the only way they can afford to support the family.
It's just unfortunate for the players who are involved,
they make their efforts to go back there and
give their time and effort for the country and they're not quite
supported by the management squad.
You know a person like yourself has probably seen it first-hand and what it can do
not only on the field but off the field and how that affects your
affects your team and the mentality of your team and
how that can bring your team culture down,
and not worry about rugby, you're worried about other stuff.
My international career with Manu Samoa began in 2005.
We didn't have the resources or facilities that the big teams did
but we made do with what little we had.
Whether it was busking outside a restaurant in Scotland to pay for a meal
or walking to a test match after the bus broke down,
it was those moments that provided the best memories,
and made our team feel like a family.
But sadly, the good times were always overshadowed by political interference and off-field controversy.
Back in 2014, myself and the Samoan Rugby team were about to strike our game against England at Twickenham.
We didn't want to but we felt like we had no choice.
We'd been evidence that potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds
had gone missing at the hands of Samoa Rugby's board members,
including our Prime Minister.
The most disappointing part was that a lot of this money was publicly raised.
Everyone had donated because they wanted to see us do well and they had pride in our team.
So to turn up and at times not have balls to train with, no kit.
It just wasn't good enough.
We played that day, but only after World Rugby promised us that the issue would be resolved.
but nothing ever happened. Myself and other senior players were criticized and
dropped for speaking out and I never played again.
Using this Samoan proverb, myself and other players created 'Pacific Rugby Welfare'
to support the hundreds of Pacific players and families living throughout the world.
The impact that this group really has is huge on a global scale.
Being involved in this is something I'm really grateful for because
I know the power of what we do.
It's always the guy that's coming behind you that you want to
lead a way, because the end of the day we're here to provide for our
families, we're here to do the same things.
With all other players associations being funded by World Rugby,
we felt it was important to have an organisation that was totally independent,
so that we can truly challenge the way the sport is being run.
I'm on my way to Romania today to support Tongan international Sione Vaiomounga.
Having taken up a professional rugby contract here, Sione has become stranded after suffering from kidney failure.
That night, I started bleeding on my nose and
after the game I go back to the hospital and they said I have a kidney problem,
and when they told me I have to do dialysis
and I thought the dialysis is going to make it better.
After that I found out after a few months, I had to do that for the rest of my life.
With the club ripping up his contract because of his sickness, Sione now relies
on the church and local shelters to feed his family.
From that moment I know, maybe after that
I'd never play again, I'd never get paid again.
It was horrible.
Leaving Sione, knowing he may well die here in Romania was heartbreaking
and I couldn't imagine having to move my family around the world to live in these conditions
and earn just €8,000 a year.
So how is it that rugby, a sport supposedly built on its strong values
is able to treat some of its best, yet poorest players,
people like Rupeni and Sione, like raw commodities
only to be exploited in what is now a global business.
To find out, I've decided to travel back to the Pacific
to speak with those in charge of the game there and get their side of the story.
My first stop is to Sione's homeland of Tonga, a nation that provides the most
professional contact sports athletes per capita in the world.
Here I am in Tongatapu, the northernmost point of Tonga.
It's where Abel Tasman first landed in 1643, the first
first European to ever set foot in these islands.
He was met just out here 500m off the coast by a sole canoe with 6 locals on board,
who he traded nails for coconuts water and pork.
First real links I guess to colonisation here in the Pacific, 500 years ago.
'For many years now the people of Tonga have been united in friendship with the people of the British Commonwealth.
As all Tonga prepares to welcome Queen Elizabeth of the Commonwealth
and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.
The two Queens meet as friends as they did on another great occasion at
the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in London.
By the early 1800s European settlers had arrived throughout the Pacific,
bringing with them two components that became the cornerstone of life here in the islands.
Christianity and Rugby.
The boardroom and the finances in the boardroom are stilll not being managed well.
World Rugby, in my view, they need to hold people accountable that
are representing them in the countries like Tonga because
what's quite evident in professional rugby
is that the games or the success of the team is won in the boardroom.
We have so many talented children. Because of eligibility rules
they're locked up. That should never be the situation.
At the 2019 Rugby World Cup, 42 players with Pacific heritage represented other nations.
World Rugby currently operates a one nation for life rule,
forcing these players to give up a huge part of their identity.
These players could choose to play for their island teams,
but knowing that you've got villages, families and communities relying on the
money being sent back from overseas rugby players,
it can often feel selfish to play for your island team, knowing how little money you'll recieve.
Born in Auckland to Tongan parents, Charles Piutau is a former All-Black
last playing for New Zealand five years ago.
Charles is hopeful the laws may change, so he can play with his brother who captains Tonga.
I think the start of it was my parents had left their home country Tonga
to come to New Zealand for a better opportunity for us kids.
I think financially, growing up in a family and being the youngest out of 10,
seeing the sacrifices that my parents have made,
you're always going to be like financially these teams that have more
the Australias and New Zealands, you're going to gravitate towards that
I count myself very fortunate and lucky to be able to put on the black jersey and represent New Zealand.
I guess there's possibly another opportunity as well to represent another country of my heritage.
and something that is very close to me.
And on top of that, my brother's been playing for Tonga for a while now.
Being a Pacific Islander is always helping our community or giving back.
Still one of the world's best players, Charles is unable to bring his experience back
for the development and benefit of Tonga.
But this wasn't always the case. Before 2001, players were able to represent a second eligible nation.
I was fortunate to be able to play both for the All Blacks and Manu Samoa,
and what a privilege it was to go back.
Once you play one test match that's it, you're stuck for life.
How can that be a good, positive thing?
It's all about growing the game,
and if you've got something to give
and are still able to give it, why do they stop you?
Why should they stop you from giving it?
There are a group of nations that are obviously the top ones,
with all the money and all the resources. They've been successful forever,
and it's a bit about protecting that.
If they're truly about growing the game globally,
you've got to look at other options and you've got to look at them with open eyes.
They galvanised the Rugby League World Cup.
no one knew the League World Cup was on, until Tonga played.
I was like 'oh here we go again, Australia's gonna thrash everyone'.
Oh, no. Here's Tonga.
You see the impact of these players coming back with experience of a professional environment,
getting the right coaches and being in a structured competition like the NRL.
It's very professional.
These players know what a professional is, they know how to play at that elite level.
My hope is that it does change.
Because if it doesn't, I think all the Samoans, Tongans and Fijians will go to play League.
Because I think League is on the right track, they're doing something better than Rugby Union.
The impact is real. When I used to play, we used to beat Japan by 30-odd points.
Now it's the other way round and Japan have got four or five Tongans.
Yes they are being developed overseas, through the competitions overseas,
You can't tell me that you go to school in one country and then that country will be telling you
no you can't work for America, or so and so, because we schooled you here and you stay here.
No, that mentality is again, not different from slave owners. You don't own the person.
Rugby Academy Tonga is funded by the biggest player agency in the world.
With other branches in Fiji and Samoa, they are one of a number of scouts and
professional clubs who link overseas teams and schools with children and players throughout the Pacific.
For the first time last year we've had a school from New Zealand ask for a 13-year old.
It's too young.
I've started seeing contracts signed by kids now,
coming out of here that they're not to play for Tonga, they're to play for Japan.
This is Tonga Rugby Headquarters.
With two empty rooms, two laptops and no training facilities of their own,
it's easy to see why players would move to play overseas.
all of this makes it even more remarkable that Tonga are ranked 13th in the world.
and with the union having so little money, Tonga haven't even
been able to rebuild their stadium damaged in a cyclone two years ago.
With another storm approaching, I'm looking for a sheltered spot to meet with a man who ran Tonga Rugby for four years.
It is really, really tough.
Every year they're taking 40 players. The best 40 kids out of Tonga
out of a rugby population of 12,000.
At the end of it, we're just left with nothing, but if we have some sort of financial help
like an evenly distributed fund from World Rugby,
kids will have alternatives, they have options
to stay here and continue on playing, closer with their parents and
have better education, have better sporting facilities.
In rugby, the host nation keeps 100% of the revenue from the game
which is then equaled out when the reverse fixture happens at a later date.
However, very few of the bigger nations ever visit smaller teams, such as the Pacific Islands.
Over the 10 years that I played for Samoa, of the top 10 teams
only one team ever came and played us in Samoa and that was Scotland.
Nobody else ever came.
And even if the bigger nations did visit the Pacific,
small crowds, cheap ticket pricing and having to pay the air fare of the opposition
means the hosting costs wouldn't even be covered.
This happened in 2016, when Samoa hosted the All Blacks and made a loss of $1m NZD.
One potential solution would be to introduce a revenue share model,
where the smaller nations will be given a fair share of the match revenue they are helping to generate.
The structure of that should be a worldwide thing.
They should have the lion's share of the gate, yeah that make sense
it's their home game, it's their sponsorship, it's their everything.
But an 80/20 split, it's not going to hurt England.
That will give much needed funding that Pacific Islands needs.
We talk about values, rugby values.
Where are the rugby values in poaching players from another nation?
Where are the rugby values in taking £4m from a rugby match for your gate receipts and your broadcast,
not even sharing them with an impoverished nation?
So much so that say when Samoa come over, they have to do a public appeal for funds,
when Twickenham are making £4-5m?
Fiji versus England in 2016, Twickenham is sold out with 82,000 people,
England players get paid £22,000 and the Fiji players are getting £400.
I'm shocked by that and I think it's massively unfair
that's something that needs to be rectified.
Because if we're not going to even tour there
there should be an agreement you guys get funded. Because I remember,
when we played actually Samoa, your last game, you know we talked about it in the week
saying can we split our match fees? How do we do this? How do we organise this?
And the problem is, everyone said it and then just left it and didn't do anything about it.
That's the truth.
The right thing would have been to share our match fees and you guys should get exactly what is owed to you.
And I think the fact that you come over to us there's no way that you should keep the money, it should be shared.
I don't think it's fair that a team coming to Twickenham
to play that is providing a spectacle,
which all these Pacific Island teams make the game exciting they make the physicality,
they should be remunerated and I think that should be part of ticket sales from the day.
Everyone puts their hand up says they're going to do good stuff and
then nothing happens because no one does anything about it and everyone just forgets about it
and we do a huddle of solidarity and we'll go 'with you brother'
and then we f**k off and play you know New Zealand next week.
That's the way it goes. It's a shame but it is the way it goes.
And that's what happens in rugby. We're told what to do,
where to be and if you stick your head up and say like
you've experienced because I know I've seen stuff about threats to you, your family.
You're suddenly seen as a trouble maker.
I've never wanted to be seen as a troublemaker,
I've always loved this game and I would have loved to have played for longer.
But I've always wanted to do the right thing.
But speaking out, particularly against authority isn't easy in a culture like Samoa,
where respect for elders means everything and if you do speak out, quite often
you're shot down.
'I explained to them that their function is to play,
you don't get yourself involved in management.'
I think he ought to be taken to a mental confinement, he is utter stupid.
My first stop in Samoa is to my Dad's villages of Falefa and Faleapuna,
where I want to find out how me speaking out against authority has affected my
Dad and his role as village Chief.
Upon arrival, the village elders welcome me back with a traditional 'ava' drinking ceremony,
and in return, Dad and I present some new rugby kits for our village team.
Awesome!
This is the village where my Mum grew up, and
Daniel's Grandmother and when you play rugby everybody knows who you are
especially when you represent the country.
It's a great honour for our families and the village.
When that whole issue rise with the Prime Minister and all that stuff
with your position to speak out what you feel is right, I think that's
your passion and as long as you do it right.
To me as a parent, I was disappointed with some of the words that
the Prime Minister has been saying towards you. I felt like you've been
serving the country more than 10 years.
It's the words that he's been selecting to use,
it's offending. To me, it's offending.
I check out what you say, what you write and what you put it on the
paper sometimes, I'll have the right to voice my opinion to you,
to guide you to make sure you stay on the line with what you say.
Dad's blessing is encouraging me to push on, and it's now time to visit the
Samoa Rugby Union to try and get some answers.
Talofa , is this the Prime Minister's office?
'Yes this is the.'
My name is Daniel Leo, from Pacific Rugby Players Welfare,
I'm just ringing to try and confirm an appointment
to interview the Prime Minister, the Chairman of the Samoan Rugby Union?
Hello?
'Daniel?'
'Can you ring me again tomorrow?'
Not knowing if the Chairman will agree to see me,
I'm heading to the Rugby Union to speak with the CEO.
The governance isn't good enough, you've got politics involved
people say that we can't run our own unions
we're not capable of running our own unions,
what are your responses to those?
We've had issues. I can admit that. We've had issues within the Union over the years.
I think a lot of decisions that's been made within the Union is
basically due to our financial constraints.
We can't employ top professional people into the Union, we can't afford to pay them.
To roll out our programmes at the moment it's around about $11m tala to fulfil our programmes.
60% is locally funded with a few here and there from a few overseas partners.
and then the other 30% is funded by World Rugby.
But we're in a difficult situation for us because
we can't get those sizeable sponsors because we don't play that many games.
Without Government, there would be no Rugby Union in Samoa and that's the honest truth.
It's crazy that for a nation whose assets provide so much to the game's global economy,
they have to rely on public funds and donations just to survive.
I believe the reason for this lies in the makeup of the World Rugby Council
who make decisions on things such as eligibility laws
and who elect the 'Executive Committee' to deal with the financial side of the game.
The 10 sides that play in the 6 Nations and Rugby Championship competitions
are known as Tier 1 nations.
and with 3 votes each, make up 60% of the council.
The other 120 rugby playing nations are known as Tier 2 and 3, or 'emerging nations'.
They have 9 votes between them and represent less than 20% of the council.
At Pacific Rugby Welfare, we'd actually launched a campaign in 2018
to make the World Rugby voting system fairer.
Unbelievably, two weeks after the launch,
Both the Samoa and Fiji Unions came out and condemned us.
The only reason I can imagine that do something like that
is because they were getting pressure on them from World Rugby
not to cooperate with a group that's outside of their funding circle.
Do you think it's right that the players associations are funded by World Rugby?
We do currently have an investment agreement with World Rugby
that comes with special conditions. Unfortunately, like anything else that
that's funded from the outside, whether it's in
government or any organisation/donor. They don't
just hand you the money, it comes with special conditions that
you have to apply in an agreement you know it's a two-way thing.
If there's anything going forward that you feel that
if that conflict of interest is in the way with their funding,
please do get in touch.
The chair is very supportive of the issues that you ping World Rugby on!
They can't they can't really say anything but you know...
The CEO saying the Samoa Rugby Union were quietly supportive of us,
but couldn't say anything against World Rugby, made me really start to question
the relationship the governing body has with its member unions.
and later that day, whilst watching the local sevens tournament,
Sina Retzlaff, one of Samoa Rugby's first female board members came and found me,
wanting to talk about that very relationship between Samoa and World Rugby.
You can't be in a development partner relationship
with an organisation who's going to
hang the carrot of we're going to pull our money on you.
It's like being married to someone who threatens to divorce you every week.
Because you can say that we're on par and you can say that we
we respect you and we're partners in this,
but if you're a partner that doesn't make me feel that we're on that the
balance of power has been has been equaled out, then that's not the
reality of the relationship. And I say this as an example because
I've been at the SRU office, for example,
And when I'm insisting on something, the answer has been
but what if they pull out?
And personally, go.
If you have criteria that you don't want to listen to us about,
and you say that they are make or break for you World Rugby,
and you need to pull out.
What's stopping you from pulling out?
'They need us'.
So tell the world that you're pulling out of Samoa,
and we'll tell you how many Samoans are so good at this game,
that you'll lose out on, or will probably back us.
I'm starting to think the Samoan Union is in a really difficult position.
they're scared of speaking up against World Rugby for fear of losing their funding,
and therefore have to rely on the government to keep them from bankruptcy.
'Good evening.'
Here in Samoa, we have a curfew between 7:30 and 8pm,
where everybody has to go inside and it's a time of prayer and Bible reading
and self-reflection so yeah, no one's out on the streets,
they close down all the streets and these guys around us are the guys that police that.
8pm, curfew has lifted and we're free to drive through again.
'Your interview with the PM is at 2pm this afternoon,
on the programme'.
Yes, okay, great. So that's confirmed?
'Yep.'
Okay, thank you very much. We'll see you at 2 o'clock.
'You're welcome, bye.'
Yep. Thank you, bye-bye.
Right, let's go and speak to the man himself, two o'clock.
I came to Samoa not knowing if our Prime Minister would agree to see me
especially as I've been so outspoken about his involvement with Samoa Rugby in the past.
So not wanting to worry my family, I haven't told them about this meeting,
but with some of the personal threats still clear in my head,
I'm starting to wonder if coming to the government building on my own is a good idea.
Do we need to knock now or what? I don't know what the procedure is.
It's his office, is it?
Whilst sitting in the waiting room, the Prime Minister's Secretary came
and said that he wanted to speak to me off camera.
He told me he no longer wanted to give the interview, but instead would give his answers in writing.
However, after explaining how far I'd come
and that this was an opportunity to give his side of the story,
he changed his mind.
Well thanks again for giving us your time,
could you just expand on some of the challenges faced by Samoan Rugby?
You know, the whole thing is unfair.
We are helping to replenish
the huge bank accounts of the big boys, Tier 1,
and we are constantly in bankruptcy.
We have now four years of clean, audit opinion,
which is a major feat for our Union.
We need to look more positively at the issue of eligiblity.
I can understand the reluctance of the Tier 1 countries.
The reluctance is due to a very selfish and narrow interpretation,
That is not looking at the wider goal of building the game.
And I must thank you for this interview.
Faafetai lava, thank you very much,
I know we always haven't always seen eye to eye on certain issues,
but I appreciate you having me here.
Look, whatever you can do to help us, very good.
It's interesting I think I came here to the islands
thinking that the involvement of politics was a really bad thing,
and as we've gone along you realise that there's no other option.
The financial aspect of rugby is too far skewed for it to be any other way.
The fact that as we left, he asked me 'anything you can do Dan to help would be hugely appreciated'
sort of got me realising that
they're desperate, Samoan rugby is desperate and Pacific Island rugby is desperate.
So yeah, what the answer is, I'm not sure just yet,
but hopefully us being here, us documenting this
and really highlighting these issues is going to make a difference in some way.
Upon leaving the Prime Minister's office, I can't help but feel I may have fallen
victim to a few of our Chairman's mind games.
This was a man who was used to deflecting pressure and wriggling out of tricky situations.
but he raised some good points.
4 years of clean accounts show Samoan Rugby is headed in the right direction.
Yet, I'm still convinced Pacific Rugby, as a whole, would be better off without the
interference and dependence on government.
So, is the situation the fault of the island unions or is the system set up for them to fail?
We are misdirected in where our disappointment
and where our anger and where we feel
there needs to be change. Yes, the Samoan Rugby Union have problems.
They get these petty little handouts from World Rugby,
and yet once again, like we know, we've sold out Twickenham on non-world cup years
we sell out all of our World Cup games, we make them millions.
We actually play games where we get nothing from it. That is ridiculous.
Rugby has never been the leading moral savior of of human rights, it's never protected human rights.
Remember, rugby used to go to South Africa throughout apartheid,
All Blacks had to go and if you took a brown guy you had to be an honorary 'white'.
people are just ignorant to blaming it on the Samoa Rugby Union,
There is a bigger enemy here, there's a bigger problem here, and that is World Rugby.
As my time in Samoa is coming to an end, I can't help but feel we're being taken advantage of.
Our history of player revolts, our corrupt unions, and our government interference
seem the perfect excuse for the Tier 1 nations not to pay us our fair share.
But are these nations deliberately allowing this to happen in the Pacific,
out of fear of losing control of the sport?
I'm here at Mount Vaea, on the way up to Robert Louis Stevenson's grave,
the famous Scottish author who wrote 'Treasure Island', and was buried here in the 1890s.
Stevenson was a much loved figure among the Samoan people, who stood up against
the colonial powers at the time, Britain, America and Germany,
who divided and exploited the local population to gain control of the region.
I can't help but compare colonialism to what's happening in rugby.
Our resources have been continuously extracted with very little ever given back.
Here it is, made it!
What a legend.
I love back then that he came to Samoa and was anti-colonial.
He would have been so unpopular.
Probably a bit like us making this documentary with World Rugby.
It's now time for me to head back to Europe.
With everything I've seen and heard here, I need to meet with World Rugby,
to tell them what I've learned and hear their side of the story.
But being outside of their funding circle, and their past
refusal to acknowledge Pacific Rugby Welfare,
I don't even know if they'll agree to speak to me, let alone record an interview.
'It's being touted as the largest shakeup in modern rugby history.
The biggest problem so far, The Pacific Island nations locked out competely, don't get a look in.'
'It would include just 12 nations, the current 6 Nations and the Rugby Championship countries,
with Japan and the US brought in.
And it's big money for those in the exclusive club, reportedly up to $14m per nation each season.'
'Only the 12 nations that have been included will will develop, the rest won't
including the Pacific Islands.'
'Does rugby exploit the Pacific Islands?
Yes.'
'They're the teams that produce the best rugby players in the world, hands down.
I really, really hope that it doesn't happen.'
'Pacific rugby players are threatening to boycott the World Cup this year if plans for a new world competition go ahead.'
As a player's association, your strongest point of leverage is really not to play,
and we believe that this,
this announcement strikes enough worry for that to be a real option.'
We've been filming this documentary for about 2 years now,
and the whole time trying to get an interview with World Rugby
has been really difficult.
Unbelievably, I've just had an email from the CEO, Brett Gosper,
this morning saying he's in London and willing to do an interview.
So I just rang up a mate to come and look after Toby,
and this could be the only opportunity I get to speak with them.
The last time I spoke to World Rugby's CEO was in a live TV interview,
when I challenged him for standing off on the big issues affecting Pacific rugby.
'But of course there's an economic benefit to the players concerned.'
I don't think that's good enough Brett.
'Okay, there's an economic...'
I don't think that's good enough that you're letting people make decisions who
don't have a professional background.
If you want to be successful, you've got to know what success looks like.
This time round, I feel I have a much clearer view on the challenges facing Pacific Island rugby,
and more importantly, what the solutions are.
We need a hand up not necessarily a handout.
I just see World Rugby as just a ghost that's in the air,
I haven't really come across any of them.
It is a universal human right, declared by the United Nations
that you have the right to change your nationality.
My problem is that you don't in rugby.
How these guys get on the boards and get into positions of real power
in the Pacific Island unions, I think there needs to be some stronger directive from World Rugby.
Brett Gosper would not be CEO if he had gone to prison for manslaughter.
The unfair voting system, that's bollocks, frankly. We all know that it's rubbish.
It is an uneven playing field, we're battling a fight that I don't see changes.
Until we get real, and until we give those nations a fair chance,
rugby basically can hang his head in shame, because it is not fulfilling its own values.
Just firstly, could you just explain what you see as the biggest challenges facing the Pacific
and the development of Pacific Island rugby?
I think the biggest challenge is for the players to stay long enough in their country to be
captured by their country and represent their country as they wish.
So, just from a personal point of view,
Do you ever see any of the Pacific Island sides, Tonga and Samoa
particularly ever achieving the 3-vote status?
Maybe not while I'm here.
But I think it's possible though yeah, I do think it's possible.
I mean it's not easy, but it is possible.
Would a one nation, one vote model not be more fair?
Well it doesn't really reflect either the history
or maybe to a certain extent the economics contribution to the game at this point in time.
Certainly, um, a lot of the one nation, one vote
Can often, um, create issues of of managing all of those numbers of countries.
What are your thoughts on the involvement of politicians?
It's too simplistic to say they shouldn't be involved or they should be involved,
what's important is when they're involved, they're involved constructively.
We see mostly that.
And when it does manifest itself in a negative way,
what sort of accountability is there to World Rugby?
Well it's very hard for us to hold a Prime Minister of a country accountable.
We completely agree with and adhere to the sovereignty of each of those
unions to decide their own fate.
and hopefully they're making the right calls for the sport in their regions.
It's quite intimidating as a player to have
your Prime Minister as the Chairman.
One thing he did mention, was this
idea of a profit share even, it was a fraction you know 5 or 10% of the gate takings at Twickenham
would make a huge difference.
Yeah it's true and this comes up every year.
We've perhaps fallen short a little bit in that area but it's a domain we don't like to get into.
It's difficult for us to impose on other unions,
a percentage of gate or otherwise,
that may have knock-on effects in other relationships they have with other
nations and where do you draw the line? And what exactly is a Tier 2 nation?
Again, this is the sovereignty of the receiving nation to
manage their affairs as best they can as well.
We've not come up with a solution, that doesn't impinge on
the individual contractual rights of those unions setting up those games.
When I was in the Pacific, a lot of the guys there said that
they'd like World Rugby regulation or just the bigger nations,
to look more favorably on areas like eligibility.
We've debated this a lot in council meetings and so on.
There just does not seem to be the...
some countries are favorable to that, others aren't.
Overall, there seems to not be the appetite for that return to players.
This one country approach to rugby is very tidy,
The unions themselves, the members, are not overwhelmingly in favour of that return,
and it's very hard just to say to people look, think bigger,
think bigger and don't be so small-minded and only think of your own union.
Do you think those values are being lived out by
some of those nations, or is it just protectionism?
It's a difficult one, because at the end of the day, I understand
why those unions are protective about what they have and their remit is to look after their own unions.
Look, I do think the values of rugby, generally,
and we go out of our way to ensure that whether it's on the pitch or off the
pitch that they're fulfilled and that they're promoted.
Look, I just think it's disappointing
that we didn't win win the argument for everyone.
After meeting Brett, I too was disappointed.
Disappointed that World Rugby won't take responsibility for the state of the game,
and instead pass the buck on to the powerful Tier 1 nations.
For World Rugby to laugh at my thought of achieving equal voting power,
and for the CEO to not even know what a Tier 2 nation was,
shows how far behind the sport is.
On the surface, rugby continues to present itself as
following noble values, 'equality, fairness and sportsmanship' but
underneath it seems nothing has changed since the colonial days of the Tier 1 countries' past.
The reality is that rugby is treating the Pacific Islands and its players as a commodity,
like any natural resource that is being exploited for profit.
So, how can the Pacific Islands move forward?
I believe there are 3 things that need to be done.
We need to be receiving our fair share of money we are helping others to earn.
Rugby's funding model has trapped the islands into a handout mentality,
where a reliance on small donations has stolen our ability to earn greater income.
We also need the eligibility rules to change, so that we can access all of our players.
Allowing a single change from a Tier 1 down to a Tier 2 nation of heritage
would have an immediate effect on growing the global game,
and best of all, it wouldn't cost a thing.
Underpinning this all, is the fact there has to be changed to the way rugby is governed.
We cannot continue to allow unelected, incompetent officals
and government politicians, to use rugby for their own personal gain
while the Tier 1 nations continue to hoard the majority of profits and power
to the detriment of our nations.
If we can achieve these things, the future of Pacific rugby looks bright,
and rest assured, I won't give up on trying to improve the game we love.