SPECIAL UPDATE: Samoa Rugby

Jeremy Lardner (0:01)

I begin this episode by paying respect to the Ngunnawal and Nambri people, the traditional custodians of the land on which this podcast is produced. I pay respect to their elders, past, present, and emerging, and I extend that same respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners of this podcast.

Hello for Lava Guys and welcome back to Dua Moana. Let's go back to the Dua Moana Pasifika Rugby Podcast, where we bring you Pacifica Voices talking about Pacifica Rugby. Now, come to you on Halloween, no less, with a very special sort of update episode, very quick one, guys, but it's a kind of thing where it's an update on something that we've been covering really, really closely on this podcast. So I thought it was very, very important to bring you this update. And also, it's just, it's one of those things that's a little bit too long and in depth to put into like a social media post or something like that. So that's why you're getting a very short sort of 10 minute style episode, but a very informative 10 minutes, hopefully for you. So what this, what this pertains to is the, well, I guess the no longer ongoing dramas that have been facing Samoan Rugby at a governance level. Obviously, things have been going pretty, pretty positively for Samoa across the board, in both their men's and women's, 15's and 7's programs on the field. But as this podcast and many others have been covering this year, there's been a bit of a rocky road at the governance level, a lot of dramas and uncertainty as well. But hopefully, that's starting to come to an end after some big, big high-level meetings being held in Apia and Samoa this week between World Rugby, Chair Brett Robinson and some of his people from World Rugby, as well as the Samoan Government.

And that's been obviously led by the Honorable Prime Minister, Schmidt of Samoa, and then some of his governmental staff as well. So they've been locked together all week. And along with Lakapi Samoa, of course, Lakapi Samoa being the governing body of Rugby, within Rugby Union, within Samoa.

And they've come out today or in the last sort of four or five hours. So they're coming out overnight with a statement that is outlining four measures that have been agreed to by all parties, that being World Rugby, Lakapi Samoa and the Samoan Government. So all three parties crucially have agreed to the following measures. And I'm just going to read them to you now, because they're pretty...

It's a pretty important step towards some semblance of not only stability, but a way forward and a way to build upwards and onwards for Samoan rugby. So the first one is, the self-suspension of Lakapi Samoa from the World Rugby Council. The self-suspension can only be lifted by a future request to the executive board of World Rugby Council and a subsequent recommendation to the World Rugby Council. In any event, the self-suspension shall remain in place during the review process referenced below.

Okay. And then the second point talks about that review process. The appointment of a Samoan led independent review group, the members of which shall be agreed by Lakapi Samoa and the Government of Samoa to review all issues pertaining to governance of Samoan Rugby Union. The third point, a review of Lakapi Samoa's compliance with World Rugby's membership criteria by a World Rugby Oversight Committee. And the last one, transfer of control and jurisdiction of all matters relating to the high performance rugby program in Samoa to the Samoan Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee with joint oversight from an appointed stewardship group. This group shall be responsible for all matters on and off field relating to the national teams, including their preparation and participation in global elite competitions, such as the Men's Rugby World Cup in 2027

The statement also goes on to say, all parties agreed that domestic rugby activities taking place in Samoa shall remain unaffected. The proactive support of SASNOC, that's the Samoan Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee, in working closely with World Rugby to safeguard player high performance pathways and opportunities is greatly appreciated by all stakeholders. So there's a lot, obviously a lot to unpack there, but I guess the main takeaways are that Lakapi Samoa have agreed to self-suspend. So World Rugby haven't suspended them, they've sort of suspended themselves. Sorry, my little alarm clock going off there. They've suspended themselves from the World Rugby Council. The exclusion of Lakapi Samoa, I guess Samoan Rugby from the World Rugby Council was something that, I think a lot of people had been following this thought was inevitable. But I guess this is the best way that that could have happened, where they've been in consultation with World Rugby, and Lakapi Samoa have themselves agreed to step down. Rather than World Rugby needing to come in and suspend them themselves, Lakapi Samoa have taken that step themselves, which is a really promising, it's a funny way to say, I guess a really promising step in a very tough process. So that's the best way that a very tough thing like that could have happened. And also, Samoa will continue to work towards both the men's and women's World Cups, right? So that was one of the main concerns that a lot of people had, was that if Samoa were suspended from the World Rugby Council, how would that affect their participation in the global aspects of the game, being the World Cup and also the Olympics, right? The Sevens is something that Samoa prides themselves on historically and currently as well. So crucially, Samoa's participation in those competitions remains unaffected, which is really, really positive. So a lot to unpack there, guys. I'm sure there's going to be a bit of news and developments around this coming out in the next couple of days. But just wanted to bring this out and let you know about it. But look, positive steps, steps in the right direction. Hopefully, this is the start of a really, really good and productive period for Samoa and Rugby, because things have been going really, really positively on the field. Now, the off-field stuff is starting to catch up with that. So it's fantastic, guys. Until next time, please be good to yourselves, be good to each other, and I'll catch you later. Thank you so much.