It’s got to start from the very top

Dear Editor

Re: Tupou suspension should be the template for all players and officials

Yeah let’s be fair on ensuring that the punishment is handed down to all, from the corporate box section of the Samoan Rugby union to the players.

The players have been again crucified to make an example of by the Board but the root of the problem flows right from the top. We can blabber all we want about players being role models, face values, decency, integrity, the wish list continues on.

But to jam and shove all these expectations down the players throats while telling them they’re uneducated publicly by the chairman, showing no support in terms of morale and lowering the prides and values within these players who are out there to face countless tournaments, playing against teams that are overwhelmingly funded and picked from millions and millions of sporting population.

The salary cap difference between our players in comparison to those other teams are phenomenon, there’s a big gap no correction it’s a void, a bottomless pit and when you find the bottom of that pit that’s where our players financial rewards for representing our country is.

It is unbelievable to know that our players in this day and age where talent, God given talent is graded by the intellectual standards Tuilaepa speaks off as, you have to be a university student to be at the top level.

The natural aptitude or skill level our players possess are incredible and are unmatched but the way they have been nurtured in order to reach its fruition, well there lies the problem.

Our players are been surrounded by the wrong people with wrong motives, wrong mentality and for Tuilaepa who is a business politician. 

Not the kind of person we need to be managing our young athletes. 

Maybe just maybe one day Tuifaasisina Williams will replace Tuilaepa and many more Samoan legends in rugby will take the seats on the Rugby union office so that the future of our players and their integrity and pride will be re-forged anew and stronger again like the days of old.

One day when these talented young stars of Samoa will walk the field alongside their idols like Taufusi Salesa, Tupo Fa’amasino, Filipo Saena, Lolani Koko, Steven Bachop, Mata’afa Keenan, the interceptor To’o Vaega, The Lima Emergency Express etc I can go on and on forever. 

The days when we scored a corner try and Darren swipes a sideline conversion that cuts the goal posts in two driving the home crowd wild with roar of pride and joy, the split second of ecstasy feeling of being gods ourselves before we head back home to reality are memorable events.

So, yeah let’s not anticipate the fruits to be sweet and succulent and have all the goodness expected when, the tree itself from its roots is rotten to it’s core. That is very hypocritical.

Fa’afetai lava.

 

Ben Tapu 

Samoa Observer

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