WHO IS DAN LEO?
Recent outbursts from former Samoan captain and Pacific Rugby Players Welfare chief executive officer Dan Leo must have Ned Haig and Jonah Lomu turning in their graves.
The question they could be asking today is: Who the hell is Dan Leo?
Melrose butcher Haig incepted rugby’s short code in April 28, 1883 while Lomu and our very own sevens wizard Waisale Serevi were part of World Rugby star-studded campaign team who spearheaded and convinced the International Olympic Committee to include rugby in the 2016 Olympic Games.
From a humble beginning in Scotland to what is now a global phenomenon, Leo’s call for possible exclusion from the Olympics should be a cry in the wild.
Rugby has made tremendous progress in leaps and bounds. To be included in the Olympics is the true measure of success. While we applaud Leo for advocating and welfare of Pacific rugby players, his call for Olympic exclusion is way over the top.
Leo said: “If it takes some short-term pain, i.e. being blocked from the Olympics, then so be it. But hopefully the sport can be proactive in this before that would happen. “We have to push
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■ through now and make sure the lessons are learned and, most importantly, acted upon.” Of course Leo made an issue regarding Fiji Rugby Union’s chairman Francis Kean’s nomination for World Rugby executive committee.
Kean resigning from the World Rugby council should put matters to rest even in Leo’s obviously biased mind.
Furthermore Kean was elected by the Fiji Rugby Union annual general meeting in 2015 and re-elected unopposed last year. Kean and the FRU got the green light from World Rugby for instituting good governance and putting their house and books in order.
Our Fiji Airways Fijian 7s team will defend the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics next year. And we should not allow anybody to spoil our chance to do a double.
Rugby is a global game, played, criticised but loved by many.
Dan Leo is a noisy nobody. He has not earned and does not deserve the recognition certain people with their own agendas are giving him.