Time to treat Pacific Islands fairly

Well done to New Zealand for granting Moana Pasifika and Fiji Drua conditional licences to take part in an expanded Super Rugby competition. The inclusion of Pacific Island teams is well deserved and long overdue.

Australia, it seems are yet to support their inclusion, not least because the two new teams will almost certainly need to recruit some players from existing Australian and New Zealand Super Rugby teams and Australia in particular appear to be heavily reliant on players with Pacific Islander heritage when it comes to their national team.

For the expanded competition to work, however, and for Fiji, Tonga and Samoa to be treated fairly, the Pacific Island teams must be fully supported in accessing players.

Simply put, it is the right thing to do. These islands contribute so much to world rugby and for decades have been treated incredibly shoddily by the powers-that-be. That treating the Pacific Islands fairly may cause some of those powers-that-be a headache is therefore by the by. 

In football in recent days we have seen just how ugly greed and self-interest can look. For rugby, despite the difficult year we have all had, now is not the time to look inwards. There is an ideal opportunity to expand the game internationally and it would be criminal not to take it.

Total Flanker – the older I get, the better I was