Pacific welfare group hopes to ease pro rugby pressures

Transcript

DANIEL LEO: We want to be a pressure group you know getting a fair shot for our players, we want to be able to address all aspects of player welfare whether that be cultural alienation, social alienation, cultural differences everything really that makes it difficult for a Pacific Island rugby player. I say Pacific Island rugby players, I am not just talking about the guys that played for Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. I am talking about the whole spectrum, you know we have got lots of players over here who have got Samoan, Fijian or Tongan ancestry but haven't always played for the national sides. We wanted to make an organisation that encompasses all of those guys and confronts every issue of welfare whether it be helping guys get a drivers license here or pay their council tax. To helping the communications process at the clubs between players and coaches or players and other players.

KV: These are issues that a lot of professional rugby players deal with but maybe talk a little bit about what unique challenges there are for Pasifika players or people of Pacific heritage that are playing overseas.

DL: I mean one of the key cultural misunderstandings is the fact that we, I guess often as Pacific young men growing up we are probably not as encouraged to talk as some of the English guys over here. Definitely not encouraged to ask questions of people in authority or you know people who might be of a different generation. For us that is a sign of respect we don't talk out of turn but that can be misconstrued as a lack of engagement. So it is one of the key things over the last six months we have just been going into the clubs and saying look the way that we communicate is very different from the way an English player or a Scottish player or a Welsh player communicates. There is a lot of pressure on us as Pacific Island rugby players. Financial pressure there is family pressure the fact that we are away, long distances away from our communities. But there is also that key aspect that we don't necessarily verbalise our frustrations which sometimes can lead to the instances that because we are not verbalising our frustrations we end up acting them out physically whether that comes across as an act of foul play on the field or off the field sometimes. There is high instances of violence in our communities so for me personally that can be addressed if we can create a channel where guys aren't so frustrated from bottling things in.

KV: Recently there was a tragic passing away of Isireli Temo, that probably brings to light how important your work is doesn't it?

DL: It is and France is a whole 'nother kettle of fish it has got 400 plus Pacific Island players over there and the dynamics of the UK is very different. So that in France it is a lot easier for guys straight from the islands to come to play in France because there is less of a visa barrier. Seventy percent of the guys who come to the UK have had the stepping stone of New Zealand of Australia. A lot of us are being born in those countries whereas 70 percent of the Pacific Island players that go to France are directly from the islands. On top of that they have got the language barrier as well. A lot of different pressures on there and I guess the sad fact is a lot of us can't deal with that pressure. that is the next step is really working with those, establishing a program in France just increasing our resilience as a people and dealing with those types of pressures.