Pacific Island rugby - Trouble in Paradise
Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2016 9:55 am
I was crestfallen when Samoa missed out on qualifying for the Olympics after a few dodgy calls from the ref in their repechage final with Spain. The Spanish won't even know their team is competing, whereas for the Samoans it would have been a much-needed shot in the arm as its national XVs team struggles to recapture its former glory days. It may be a small island, but it is one of the major production lines for rugby stars on the club and international stage. We neglect them at our peril. This article says it all:
It could be one of the feel-good stories of Rio 2016 -- a tiny island nation triumphs on the world's biggest sporting stage to win its first Olympic medal.
Fiji is favorite to claim gold in the men's rugby sevens tournament, which starts Tuesday, having overcome financial problems and the loss of leading players to win back-to-back world titles.
Such a result would, according to Brett Gosper, the head of World Rugby, be "the fairytale result -- a story that transcends the sport."
But not everything is rosy with rugby in the Pacific Islands. Neither Samoa, a one-time powerhouse of the sevens format, nor Tonga have qualified teams for Rio.
And the three rugby-proud nations are losing top talent to an increasing number of tier-one teams -- an age-old problem -- with many stories of players then being blocked from playing for their countries by their club employers.
The body representing the players has heard stories of players being left stranded without visas in their new countries, or else left with sizable tax bills, unaware of the contracts they had signed.
Continues here: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/09/sport ... index.html
It could be one of the feel-good stories of Rio 2016 -- a tiny island nation triumphs on the world's biggest sporting stage to win its first Olympic medal.
Fiji is favorite to claim gold in the men's rugby sevens tournament, which starts Tuesday, having overcome financial problems and the loss of leading players to win back-to-back world titles.
Such a result would, according to Brett Gosper, the head of World Rugby, be "the fairytale result -- a story that transcends the sport."
But not everything is rosy with rugby in the Pacific Islands. Neither Samoa, a one-time powerhouse of the sevens format, nor Tonga have qualified teams for Rio.
And the three rugby-proud nations are losing top talent to an increasing number of tier-one teams -- an age-old problem -- with many stories of players then being blocked from playing for their countries by their club employers.
The body representing the players has heard stories of players being left stranded without visas in their new countries, or else left with sizable tax bills, unaware of the contracts they had signed.
Continues here: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/09/sport ... index.html
