Poor Prime Minister Tuilaepa!

By Mata'afa Keni Lesa 23 June 2018, 12:00AM

Poor Prime Minister Tuilaepa! We really do feel for him.

As the Chairman of the Samoa Rugby Union (S.R.U.), he must be running out of excuses in a bid to appease members of the public who are obviously upset and angry about the performance of our national teams.

It doesn’t help that he leads a broke Union where he is then required to front up to the nation and beg for more money. 

This is precisely what he did yesterday. Again.

You see it wasn’t that long ago when the S.R.U. hosted a radiothon. In fact it was only last year. 

And here they were again yesterday, begging for any money. In Tuilaepa’s words, as little as ten sene is better than nothing.

Folks, it’s not an easy thing to do. Prime Minister Tuilaepa is a man who has done so man wonderful things for this country. His contribution and leadership in the development of Samoa is absolutely unquestionable.

At this day and age, he shouldn’t have to openly beg for money.

And yet our poor Prime Minister, in his capacity as the Chairman of the Union, has no other option. On top of having to beg for money, he then has to front up time and time again with some excuses for the pathetic level our rugby has dropped to.

You probably don’t want to know but the fact that the Manu Samoa has not won a game in ten consecutive test matches is not exactly the kind of record anybody would be proud of. 

And just when Prime Minister Tuilaepa would hope that the Sevens team could perhaps provide some light relief, they don’t. If anything, they have gone backwards in their ranking on the World Series. 

What is going on here?

At the S.T.A. Fale yesterday, it was the poor Prime Minister who again had to put on a brave face in calling for help. 

Tuilaepa said the Union’s latest radiothon is to raise money to help Manu Samoa’s campaign to qualify for the Rugby World Cup. In doing so, he reminded that the S.R.U. is a small Union that relies a lot on donations.

He also made a very interesting point about where Samoan rugby is today.

Listen to him: “People can ask why should we waste money on a losing team?”

He answered himself and said that the experience from losing games help players to learn from their mistakes.

“You become smarter after you make many mistakes,” he said, adding that we can only get better by learning from our mistakes.  

“Our Manu Sevens team that became world champions came through that, after losing so many times and only getting eggs before they eventually started winning and reached the top of the world.”

Really? 

What a load of garbage.

Judging from Tuilaepa’s reasoning, the poor man is tired. And we cannot blame him. He is only human after all and he has been doing this for years. He is also not getting any younger.

For someone who has done so much for Samoa, it is a shame that it has come to this. 

We can laugh and try to make up excuses about the state of our rugby – on and off the field – until we are blue in the face but that doesn’t change the fact. This is probably the lowest point in the proud history of Samoan rugby.

The worst part is we just cannot see the end of the tunnel. How did we arrive at the point we are today? And can we get ourselves out of it? With the same people at the helm? 

Getting back to Prime Minister Tuilaepa, we know he works hard. 

But one man can only do so much. He is a man with a full plate and far too many responsibilities.

He is only human and he cannot continue to pull rugby through on his own strength. 

He needs help and a lot of it.

Or perhaps he needs to admit that it will not be him to take the sport to the next level, restore national pride and allow Samoan rugby to fully realise its potential.

What do you think? 

Have a peaceful weekend Samoa, God bless!

By Mata'afa Keni Lesa 23 June 2018, 12:00AM
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