MUCH has been said about the game of rugby, its development, advancement and its pros and cons.
But the reality of rugby perfectly described in the saying; “Rugby is not just a sport, nor just a game. It’s a way of life.”
This rings true to what rugby in the Pacific Islands is all about.
Not only to its players, but to all islanders — young and old.
In most countries, especially Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, rugby is like religion. It is worshiped.
Players are praised, idolised, and everybody’s stars.
In some cases, their success mentor and motivate young islanders who dream on the same fame.
Rugby, like every sport, tends to bring a whole nation or a group of nations together under one banner cheering for the same team to win.
A good example of this would be the Fiji 7s team which won the country’s first Olympic Games gold medal last year.
It saw people across the Pacific — mighty Australia and New Zealand included, cheering and showing their support for Fiji, their Pacific Islands brothers.
Their win not only sent people on the 300 islands of Fiji in a cheering frenzy, but the whole rugby world was celebrating with us, a dot in the global map.
Thanks to the internet, during that 20 minutes Fiji was the most searched destination. The online hits just sky-rocketed into billions.
This was evident in the flooding of social media websites with congratulatory posts and even resulted in the breaking down of one of the main online search engines.
What transpired after Fiji’s Rio win was what could be described as the dawn of a new era, not only for Fijian Rugby, but a new era for rugby in the Pacific Islands.
This week another rugby tournament could promote the region globally.
The World Rugby Pacific Challenge which started at the ANZ Stadium in Suva yesterday involves Japan, Samoa and Tonga.
Despite being dubbed as tier two rugby nations, Pacific Island countries are considered the big hitters in global rugby.
Having produced many rugby greats such as Waisale Serevi, Rupeni Caucaunibuca, Brian Lima, the Tuilagi brothers, Finau Maka and Nili Latu; Fiji, Tonga and Samoa have contributed a lot to rugby.
The three Pacific Island nations are rugby giants in their own right, despite the challenges they faced because of lack of resources and their constant battles against a system that continuously undermines and exploits them when left unchecked.
This was highlighted by a statement made by film director, Adam Perrin (directed the film Pacific Warriors which was released in 2015) when he spoke to The Guardian.
His statement was also included in an www.tvnz.co.nz article titled 30 per cent of players at Rugby World Cup are Pacific Warriors.
According to the article, Perrin’s documentary explored the rich history of rugby from Polynesia and it argued that they always had to play the game against the odds.
So this is another round for these island nations. They play the game they love against oppositions, not only on the field, off the field also.
Call for public to support regional tournaments
Oceania Rugby Union (ORU) competitions manager Wayne Schuster has urged members of the public to support Oceania tournaments.
He described the WRPC as platform for young talents and prospects from the four nations being showcased and tested for further national duties to their respective countries.
“With the emerging talents from all the four nations, what the public will see is your crop of players who have been identified for high honours, and no doubt that has been the case in the last four years or so,” Schuster said.
“A lot of these players have progressed on to the Flying Fijians and the Manu Samoa. In fact a few players in the Samoan team have had full international experience, so you will expect the public to be expecting a high quality of rugby. That is something to look forward to.”
He said Fiji had hosted the WRPC for the past three years and the Oceania 7s last year. That indicated the potential that Fiji has for hosting bigger competitions in the future.
“There is a lot of things happening and there is a general feeling that Fiji will take the next step and Suva will take the next step in hosting future international tournaments.
“Let’s hope that the public will get behind and support these tournaments and not only their local players, but also for the players from the Pacific and around the region who are contesting for the cup this year,” he said.
World Rugby Pacific Challenge
Ninety three years after Fiji, Tonga and Samoa played their first Test matches against one another in 1924, World Rugby developed the latest form of what was described by ORU in an article titled World Rugby Pacific Challenge as the, “Latest form of the important rugby development tournament pathway for the region.”
The tournament was initially called the Pacific Rugby Cup (PRC) and it initially consisted of two teams from each the three Pacific Island nations playing in a round robin format.
Fijian teams were the Fiji Warriors and Fiji Barbarians, Samoan teams were Upolu Samoa and Savaii Samoa while Tongan teams were called Tau’uta Reds and Tautahi Gold. According to Oceania Rugby, Savaii Samoa won the first tournament in 2006 followed by Upolu Samoa in 2007, the 2008 tournament was won by Tautahi Gold and Fiji Warriors won the 2009 and 2010 season.
The article said in 2011, the PRC was expanded and it saw the Super Rugby development teams from Australia, New Zealand and the Japan A team being included into the competition.
Also, the three Pacific Island teams were then represented by their national A team to instead of their initial two teams in the competition.
With the new format in place, Fiji Warriors, Junior Japan, Samoa A and Tonga A, were the core teams of the tournament.
The Fiji Warriors won the tournament three years in a row from 2011 to 2013.
Oceania Rugby reported: “The format took the Pacific Rugby Cup to a new level as a pathway tournament and showcased young talents.”
“Designed to bridge the gap between domestic and international rugby for the best locally-based players from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, it exposed the Pacific Island players and management to some of the best professional rugby structures in the world,” Oceania Rugby said in an article.
The tournament was further expanded in 2014 with the inclusion of the Pampas XV from Argentina which won their first and second season successively bagging the 2014 and 2015 tournaments respectively.
The year 2015 also marked another change in the competition, this time the name of the competition was changed from its former Pacific Rugby Challenge to the World Rugby Pacific Challenge.
Oceania Rugby reported that it reflected a move to a more international competition and it comprised the A teams from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga and the Pampas XV, Junior Japan and Canada A.
It was later reformatted in 2016 because of the arrival of the America’s Rugby Championship. With the emergence of this new competition, it saw Fiji Warriors, Samoa A, Tonga A and Junior Japan being the only teams competing in the competition.
Past winners:
2006 Savai’i Samoa
2007 Upolu Samoa
2008 Tautahi Gold
2009 Fiji Warriors
2010 Fiji Warriors
2011 Fiji Warriors
2012 Fiji Warriors
2013 Fiji Warriors
2014 Pampas XV
2015 Pampas XV
2016 Fiji Warriors
