No money, no Fiji trip for 7s team

The Tonga 7s team has been forced to pull out of this week’s Coral Coast 7s tournament in Sigatoka, Fiji because there has been no funds or sponsor to support them.

A last ditch effort by the Kingdom 7s Support Group to secure the support of Papua New Guinea bank BSP was turned down last Friday.

The bank said it could not support the team because of the Tonga Rugby Union’s poor management record.

But the Kingdom 7s Support Group says they are not tied in with the TRU in anyway “as we are a group made up on individuals who love the game and want to support sevens rugby and the development of the players here”.

“It is sad that local businesses still look at the TRU’s past mistakes as the reason not to support the development of sevens rugby,” the Group said.

“We are not tied with TRU – we are totally different from them and our aim is to secure funds that will allow the players to go out to Fiji and other regional countries for tournaments where they can play.

“It is a shame that the team is not able to go to Fiji for the Coral Coast 7s tournament because no one is there to support them financially.

“Sevens rugby is fast developing and having the Tonga 7s team playing actively will help them in their efforts to win a spot in the World Sevens Rugby Series and the Olympic Games next year.”

Tonga 7s Head Coach Andy Katoa said they need to be playing some top level matches so that they can be ready for the all-important World Sevens Series core-team qualifier in March at the annual Hong Kong 7s tournament.

“We need to be out there playing top level matches because we do not have any other tournament before Hong Kong,” he said.

“It is critical that we get to play in tournaments in Fiji or even spend time there to prepare for the Hong Kong event.”

Winning the qualifier will see Tonga playing in the series as a core team.

That would mean playing in tournaments in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Dubai, South Africa, Singapore and the United States of America.

The TRU has made a proposal for sevens rugby funding but World Rugby has yet to decide on that.

Tonga 7s’s campaign has been made tougher with World Rugby kicking them out of the Wellington and Sydney 7s tournaments.

As the best qualifier apart from Australia at the Oceania Championship last year, Tonga had automatically qualified for both events but World Rugby has changed the system and included Japan from the Asia Zone instead.

     

Author: 
Nuku'alofa Times