Rugby body eyeing Pacific Islander teens

SINGAPORE — The Republic’s national rugby team could soon welcome players from Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand into its ranks. The Singapore Rugby Union (SRU) is aiming to launch a pilot Pacific Island Programme next year to recruit young players from the region to train and study here, as well as represent Singapore in international rugby matches.

Newly-installed SRU Technical Director and national coach Inoke Afeaki will head the search for candidates for the inaugural programme as the sport looks to improve on its International Rugby Board (IRB) world ranking after dipping 17 places to world No 66 in the last year.

“We are looking at young talents who want to come and study at the polytechnics here,” said Afeaki, who represented Tonga in three World Cups in 1995, 1999 and 2003.

“They can come as 16- or 17-year-olds and the key is for them to assimilate, study, graduate and play rugby. The long-term prospect is for them to stay on as Permanent Residents or citizens.”

While IRB rules state that players can compete for a country as long as they have resided there for 36 months, Afeaki is aware that the programme may cause unhappiness among the fraternity. In 2009, nine local players from the 30-member national squad boycotted training sessions before the Asian 5 Nations tournament, citing unhappiness over issues such as the number of foreign-born players in the team.

Afeaki — who also played professionally in New Zealand, Japan, Wales and France — believes the foreign talents will be able to complement the current national squad. “We have to be selective and enhance the team where needed,” he said.

“We don’t want to flood the country with foreign talents — they have to be able to give back to the country. We are very culture conscious and know Singaporeans want to own their team. I’m brought here to help out and I am fair.

“We want to put people with the right skills and talents in the right place to help Singapore do well.”

Aside from a two-gold medal target for the national men’s and women’s sevens teams at the 2015 SEA Games which will be hosted here, Afeaki is aiming to help the Republic gain promotion to the Asian Rugby Football Union (ARFU) Division 1 this year. But more importantly, the 39-year-old wants Singaporeans to be able to mix it up with Asia’s rugby giants Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.

“I don’t know why there seems to be a mental block against the Asian rivals,” he said.

“If we get ourselves organised, set ourselves to the task, we can knock over some pretty big countries. We have to play countries like Hong Kong and Japan more frequently to close the gap and, within two years, there will be a marked improvement.

“Right now, the gap between Singapore and the big Asian countries looks like an ocean to a lot of people, but with the right people, within one year we’ll be running with the big guys.”

But first, the SRU are looking to get their new rugby pitch installed at the Delta Sports Complex — which used to be home to the Singapore Hockey Federation — to hold training sessions for the national sevens and 15s teams.

It had intended to host the ARFU Under-19 Championships at Delta in August, but the youth tournament will now be held at the Ministry of Education’s Co-Curricular Activities Branch as the pitch will only be ready at the end of this year.

Said SRU President Low Teo Ping: “We want to showcase the sport to the young, especially school children, and hope that through this, they will one day aspire to represent Singapore.” ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DEBORAH ONG