Union could lose the Pacific

A Pacific studies academic has warned the two rugby codes face ‘‘a real threat’’ over player eligibility after Jason Taumalolo’s call to play for Tonga at the Rugby League World Cup.

Damon Salesa, associate professor of Pacific Studies at Auckland University, claimed rugby union could ‘‘easily lose Pacific rugby’’ if its governors took a different stance to rugby league over eligibility.

The former Rhodes Scholar also hit out at rugby union’s governance representations, claiming rugby union boards are ‘‘as ethnically diverse as a 1980s Remuera Rotary Club’’.

Salesa covers the issues in his book, Island Time: NZ’s Pacific Futures and told Radio New Zealand yesterday that rugby union and rugby league had to look hard at their eligibility rules.

‘‘What we have seen [at the Rugby League World Cup] is going to pose a real threat to the global rugby codes,’’ he said.

‘‘Now, a whole lot of players look at what Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita did [in opting to play for Tonga], and their only regret is they didn’t do it too.

‘‘We are probably going to get a question called on both league and rugby about eligibility.’’

During a wide ranging interview on RNZ’s Sunday Morning programme, Salesa said the sports’ decision makers faced a dilemma.

‘‘Do they crack down on eligibility and prevent this happening in the future or do they allow this kind of connection to take a place in the sport?’’

Salesa said people were now able to have dual passports, but sport was ‘‘the only place where you have to pick or choose between nations’’

He said Taumalolo had been called ‘‘a traitor and a turncoat’’ by New Zealand’s mainstream media.

‘‘But players born in Tonga who play for the All Blacks, like Malakai Fekitoa or Vaea Fifita, would they ever be called turncoats or traitors? ‘‘Not in a million years.’’ Salesa said rugby union and rugby league in New Zealand had ‘‘been built on the assumption the team of choice, even for players who have the most fleeting association with New Zealand, is New Zealand or Australia’’.

‘‘But these guys [Taumalolo, Fifita and others] showed the place they were dreaming of playing for was Tonga.’’

If rugby league made a different decision on eligibility to rugby union, ‘‘which is highly likely’’, union ‘‘could easily lose Pacific rugby’’.

Salesa said New Zealand-born Tongan Charles Piutau - set to become the world’s highest paid rugby union player when he moves from Ulster to English club Bristol - had been labelled ‘‘a mercenary’’ after leaving the All Blacks early.

‘‘They think he owes the All Blacks something because he plays for the All Blacks for a while.

‘‘What about those one-game All Blacks who can’t play for their Pacific nations. There’s no reciprocality in this.’’

Salesa said union would become ‘‘the weaker code’’ among Pacific people if league allowed NRL players to choose who they would play for, internationally.

While that would be challenging for the Kiwis, it would be good for the sport.

He said teams such as the Warriors, Chiefs and Blues had large numbers of Pacific players, yet rugby union boards were still ‘‘stuck in the 1970s’’ with most ‘‘as ethnically diverse as a 1980s Remuera Rotary Club’’.

‘‘Shouldn’t we we embarrassed that we can let our largest fund — the New Zealand Superannuation Fund — be managed by a Pacific person, yet the NZ Rugby Union says it can’t find someone [of Pacific heritage] to appoint to its board.

‘‘I can think of dozens of Pacific people who would be qualified.’’

Salesa said the boards were losing out through not having more diversity.

‘‘If there were Pacific people on the New Zealand Rugby Union board do you think they would make the same decision around admitting a Japanese team, and not a Pacific team, to Super Rugby or admitting Argentina, and not a Pacific team, to the Rugby Championship? The New Zealand Rugby Union is missing an opportunity to lead.’’