Samoan rugby

Re: Samoan rugby’s problem 

The P.M. became chair of the S.R.U. back in 2004-2005. In that time, Samoan 7s won the World Series in 2009-2010 season. It remained at the top for several years always finishing in the top 5.

Here’s the real elephant in the room. Samoan rugby has only gone backwards since the player revolt in 2014. Before then, in 2012, Samoa were ranked at their highest ever ranking in it’s history (7th) in the 15s game. In 7s, Samoa was one of the best 7s teams in the world when there were only local players playing in the 7s team under Dicky Tafua and Stephan Betham. Absolute greats of 7s rugby who are recognised as some of the best players ever to play the 7s game - Uale Mai, Lolo Lui, Alafoti Faosiliva, etc. Uale Mai is in the IRB hall of fame for 7s I think.

Since 2014 though, everything has gone downhill on the field.

Off the field, things are improving with World Rugby taking over the process of appointing coaches and examining every W.R. cent going into the S.R.U. (which is still less than the sponsorships of Bluesky and S.I.F.A.) but on the field, it has been an absolute disaster. Both the 15s and 7s team performance has collapsed. Very sad to see.

 

Petelo

Samoa Observer

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