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English test players Mako Vunipola and Manu Tuilagi are appealing to team mates to help out the cash-strapped Manu Samoa by donating part of their match fees.
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It’s the latest in an ongoing saga that has seen the disparity between player wages highlighted and news that the Samoan Rugby Union is close to filing for bankruptcy. In the upcoming test match between England and Manu Samoa, it has been revealed that the Samoan players will be receiving £650 each in match fees, compared to the £22,000 each their opposites will make.
Vunipola told the Mail on Sunday that ‘if players help out, maybe the higher ups will see and realise they should help out as well’.
‘If 23 England players give £1,000 each, that will make a lot of difference to the Islanders.’ he went on to say.
‘We’re very lucky over here with the security we have from our clubs and England. A union as big as England get a lot of revenue so I’d like to see them help out Samoa. I have no interest in politics at all — Maro Itoje had to explain to me what Brexit meant — but I’m interested in helping people back home. People think the situation will solve itself but it’s getting worse.’
Tuilagi added:
‘A rugby world without Samoa is no rugby world to me. It would be very, very sad. There’s so much potential. With the right infrastructure and management, they can be as good as any team in the world.’
Both men are members of Pacific Rugby Players Welfare, a players union that represents the interests of Pacific Island players in Europe.
Last month chairman and former Manu Samoa test forward Dan Leo told Rugby Pass:
‘At the moment the [revenue] model is based on a very old, almost prehistoric, agreement where the home unions get to keep 100 per cent of their gate takings. In theory that’s then reciprocated. The issue we have is that England has never come out to Samoa, Tonga or Fiji. Their argument would be that they’d just like to play the All Blacks every game. Rugby is a business, I understand that, but if we’re going to grow the game we need a fairer share of that revenue that’s being generated by big games like this.’
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Manu Samoa play England at Twickenham on November 25, as well as Scotland at Murrayfield this coming Saturday.
Read the full interview with Dan Leo of Pacific Rugby Players Welfare here.