Leo: Island boys must learn to adapt like the Vunipolas
Since red and yellow cards were introduced worldwide ahead of the 2000 Six Nations, Tonga and Fiji have racked up more sin-binnings per game than any of the tier one nations, with more than one yellow card issued every other match. Samoa are eighth in th
DAN Leo, director of Pacific Rugby Players Welfare, believes it is high time the Pacific Island Unions cleaned up their act after a
Rugby Paper survey confirmed that Tonga, Fiji and Samoa are among the most penalised teams in world rugby. France, Ireland, England and Scotland, who have collected fewer yellow cards than world champions New Zealand. That will come as a shock to those who believe the All Blacks receive favourable treatment, but Leo is more concerned with repairing the reputation of Pacific island teams whose overtly-physical approach often lands them in trouble. Former Samoa lock Leo,
left, told The Rugby Paper: “The statistics don’t lie and the onus is on our rugby unions to look at this. It’s the way we’re being coached, our mentality and the way we look at our reputation, whether we like it or not.
“The way we play the game in the islands is very physical and our pool of professional players can be categorised as high impact. There’s risk involved and you have to ask whether we’re over-glorifying the big hit ahead of rugby’s finer arts?
“This stuff can be coached – you’ve seen that with Mako and Billy Vunipola, who are physical but very well disciplined – so we have to look at how we’re coaching players in the islands from a young age and rebuild our reputation.”
Meanwhile, Leo has revealed that former Samoan internationals Mike Umaga and Lome Fa’atau are to join the RFU’s disciplinary panel in an effort to reassure Pacific Island players over perceptions of discrimination at judicial hearings.
Leo explained: “The RFU have been very receptive to this and both Mike and Lome are respected guys who’ve been here a long time. They’ll be able to sit on any disciplinary panel and it will give our guys extra reassurance that they are not being prejudiced against.”