Alcohol abuse no laughing matter for players in Pacific
I’ll admit, it hasn’t been a great month off the field for my fellow Pacific Island rugby players. Following the arrest of two Fijian players in Paris a fortnight ago, this week’s media focus has been upon the ill discipline of Samoans Manu Tuilagi and Denny Solomona which saw them booted from England camp. As if my news feed wasn’t already enough for a headache, more details of Niko Matawalu’s drunken actions after an Exeter Christmas party also poured through.
Drunken misconduct and rugby have a long and illustrious relationship. Many of the stories most fondly shared by those whose weekends were once spent chasing egg shaped balls, centre around alcohol fuelled aftermatch antics and brushes with the law. For the most part though, these stories end with a humorous anecdote and at the very worst, a slap on the wrist by law enforcement officers.
When it comes to the Pacific Islands rugby, alcohol related stories rarely provide anything to laugh about.
In the Pacific, alcohol has only been properly accessible to two generations prior to ours. Our people don’t have the tolerance to alcohol that the English have built up over hundreds, if not thousands of years. That said, Pacific Islanders are more susceptible to alcohol reliance, addiction and the adverse affects of alcohol consumption than most.
I don’t say this to excuse the behaviour of my Pacific Island compatriots, but simply to highlight some sad truths. With increased availability and access to alcohol, our communities have become host to some of the highest sexual assault and domestic violence statistics in the world. One in three women in the Pacific reports to have been either sexually or physically abused. That is only the reported number. The way our cultures operate, the likelihood is that this number is even higher.
Similar statistics are reported in the non-traditional Pacific Island communities of New Zealand and Australia. To believe that those figures aren’t just as prevalent in our overseas rugby playing community would be naïve and dangerous.
“Our people don’t have the tolerance to alcohol that the English have built up over hundreds of years”
Here in Europe, many Pacific Island rugby players have to cope with extreme financial pressure. One person I came across in my role as director of Pacific Rugby Players Welfare (PRPW), supports a village of two hundred on his single salary, not to mention his wife and children who live with him here in the UK.
Pressure does strange things to people. Often it can bring out the worst in us. The sad thing is that, all to often, it is our loved ones who have to bear the brunt of that pressure, in whatever form it takes.
In 2016 I helped launch Pacific Rugby Players Welfare (PRPW), a not-forprofit group which aims to support the six hundred-strong Pacific Island community who play professional and semi-pro rugby in the UK and Europe. Many of those players experience hardship on a lot of different levels. Whether it’s a dispute with a club or agent, language difficulties, social isolation, post-rugby depression or anything else, PRPW are here to help.
There is no doubt that when it comes to rugby, Pacific Islanders are one of the most naturally gifted groups on the planet. But, as with any talent, it needs nurturing and guidance. These off-field dilemmas need to be reduced dramatically if our nations are to realise their true rugby potential.
By providing cultural specific educational workshops, cultural integration assistance, counsellors and other key support services, we at PRPW hope to help reduce the pressure that Pacific Island players experience throughout their rugby careers. We also want to help players to better deal with pressure. My prayer is that as this happens, the levels of alcohol reliance and problematic behaviour such as those witnessed this week will decrease.
Our rugby players are not just our countries ambassadors, they are our children’s role models. If we can reduce the instances of abuse in our rugby playing community and use them as examples, I truly believe we can have an impact on the levels of abuse as experienced in the Pacific Islands.