Eliota's the man
Willie Jackson Opinion
Friday, 7th October, 2011
Good on Manu Samoa midfielder Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu for speaking up about the injustice and racism that his team Manu Samoa has had to face over the years.
Fuimaono-Sapolu decided to speak out after the disgusting referring exhibition from Welsh ref Nigel Owens in the Samoa-South Africa game.
Fuimaono-Sapolu let his emotions get in the way when he called Owens a racist.
However, there's probably no doubt that many Samoans were thinking that.
After all every 50/50 decision went against them.
The ref then made a number of crucial mistakes penalising Samoa wrongly and when the Samoan captain attempted to talk to Owens, he responded in a patronising and disrespectful way speaking to him like a child.
Despite these obstacles the Samoans pushed the South Africans to the brink.
It was a magnificent performance from them and they deserved much more than a 13-5 loss.
Fuimaono-Sapolu backed up his claims of racism against his team on TV, and we found out that he was a very articulate young man with two degrees who felt that he needed to advocate on behalf of his people.
I thought that this was fabulous. For too many years the IRB and the NZRFU have been getting away with treating Pacific Island teams like second-class citizens.
And for too long these rugby players have been silent and too scared to speak out for fear of being banned or scapegoat.
But Fuimaono-Sapolu doesn't care, he is willing to sacrifice his career to make his point and his argument is valid.
He says the ref had a conflict of interest as Owens' country Wales would've missed out on the quarter finals if Samoa had won.
Also the Samoans weren't given a chance to recover from their previous game with only four days rest, compared to the Boks eight, and Owens and referees over the years have always shown a bias against Samoa.
He believes refs have formed racial stereotypes against them and they see the Samoans as ill disciplined and violent players who need to be put in their place. On all accounts he is correct.
Many high-profile Pacific Island players have said the same thing to me over the years.
And while Fuimaono-Sapolu probably went too far when he compared Samoa's plight to the holocaust and slavery, he is absolutely correct with his criticism of the institutional racism that Pacific Island teams are subject to.
Pacific Island teams were forgotten when they expanded the Super 14 and Tri-Nations.
All Blacks teams don't tour the Pacific and Pacific Island players are prohibited from playing for their nation if they have already played rugby for another country.
Congratulations Eliota for highlighting all these injustices and for standing up for your people.
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