The Samoa lock Dan Leo has lifted the lid on his team’s bitter dispute with its own union after officials from the Pacific island again missed a scheduled meeting with their players to discuss longstanding grievances, deepening the unrest within the squad as they prepare for their final autumn Test against England.
Samoa will line up at Twickenham on Saturday to sign off a northern hemisphere tour which has provided one defeat and one victory, but has been dogged by internal strife. The initial threat to boycott the England fixture has been quelled yet tensions have been heightened once again following Samoa Rugby Union’s cancellation of a meeting with the players on Thursday.
Samoa’s prime minister, Tuilaepa Sailele, who is also the SRU chairman, had described the players as “spoilt children” once the boycott threat was made. However, there are numerous, long-term problems that Samoa’s players feel have not been addressed, regarding the transparency and direction of significant sums of money within the union, travel and scheduling arrangements, and the fact that team selection has previously been revealed first on social media before an internal announcement.
Samoa’s players earn around £500 per week yet their main grievances are not centred on personal pay. The SRU were expected to send two representatives to a meeting with the players, the International Rugby Board and the International Rugby Players’ Association in Vannes, Brittany last Saturday after the 10-point victory over Canada but did not. A further meeting was scheduled at their base near Twickenham for on Thursday but the SRU were absent again because, said Leo, “they mixed up the dates”.
“It is massively disappointing because we just want some resolution. We want this to come to an end. It has dragged on for a long time, for years, and this movement is about putting an end to it all now,” said Leo. “We were supposed to have had some resolution around moving forward, which would have been based on guaranteeing players’ safety, that there will be no blacklisting of players after this tour and a number of things such as transparency and effective governance. We got notified 24-48 hours ago that the meeting was not to take place based on the fact that the Samoan Rugby Union had mixed up the dates.
“It’s in the back of our minds all the time. The bigger issue is that there needs to be a separation of politics from sport. You can’t have a situation where players are questioning accountability and transparency and then getting their families threatened. That’s not sport in my opinion. I have had threats personally since we went down this road. If it’s happened to me it has probably happened to others.”
A Samoa team manager said: “Our main focus as management is to focus on the Test ahead of us. Any meetings that are going to happen are handled by a few of the senior players, the professional players’ association, the IRB and Samoa Rugby Union.”
Leo, 32, is a senior member of the Samoa squad and the London Irish forward says he is aware that by speaking out against the SRU his own international future could be at serious risk. The team had considered some form of protest to raise the issue against England but, given their relatively modest salaries, fear significant fines similar to those handed out by the IRB to South Africa, which ranged from £200 to £1,000, when the Springboks wore armbands protesting against Bakkies Botha’s suspension in 2009.
“They got rid of our captain, Mahonri Schwalger, after the last World Cup for speaking up,” Leo said. “I was one of nine players who wrote the letter to the Samoan Observer after the 2011 World Cup backing up Mahonri Schwalger. They got rid of about four or five of those guys. I managed to survive. It has been underlying for years and years but we got sick of the fact there was a lack of communication and there wasn’t any progress between 2011 and now.
“We are going into a big year where the Samoan Rugby Union will be asking the Samoan people for a lot of money. We were the only team at the last World Cup who went out and fundraised, we went into schools and churches and villages, they used the team as a front asking for money. We are not comfortable repeating that process not knowing where the money is going. We refuse to. It has to be dealt with now.”
Ten New Zealand players on Thursday united to back Samoa on social media, the All Blacks sending the message “players staying United for Manu Samoa and a positive outcome for the future of Samoan Rugby” on Instagram. The Samoa captain, David Lami, believes the support could galvanise his side for the England match.