The Samoa Rugby Union issues this statement to enlighten the public of the work of the SRU, and on some of its recent achievements and roles including Manu Samoa. Reports in the media discrediting the Samoa Rugby Union and its Board potentially damages the image and the morale of the Samoan Rugby Union. As an organization, we acknowledge that constant improvement and renewal must take place and will conduct the usual review process as performed for all SRU teams after all major competitions. Any criticisms received by the SRU Board will be addressed in the Review Process of the RWC.

The Board of the Samoa Rugby Union and Executives is made of representatives of its affiliated Unions plus one independent member, and are all unpaid volunteers.

Samoa Rugby Union
The Samoa rugby Union is an incorporated organization registered in Samoa. It is owned by the local Rugby Unions that combine to form the Samoa Rugby Union. Its Board Members are elected yearly as representatives of the affiliated Unions of the Samoa Rugby Union. The various unions are responsible for developing rugby at the community levels, and organizing competitions that develop elite players.
The Schools Union conducts the School’s Competition, the Samoa Women’s Rugby Union conducts the Women’s Tournaments. Each Provincial Union conducts each own 7s and 15s Competitions. The SRU conducts the National Sevens tournament for Men and Women, and the NPC or National Provincial Cup.

Currently the Men’s Sevens are totally local in makeup of players, coaches and managers. The strength of the Sevens team is the local development coming through the local Unions, and the availability of the IRB Sevens Series to Samoa for competitive match-play and fitness.

The SRU office is managed by the CEO and incorporates Corporate Services Development, High Performance Unit andTours and Events for all national representative teams of the Samoa Rugby Union.

Representative Teams of Samoa Rugby Union
The Manu Samoa Team is the national mens team for the 15s code of Rugby. Other national teams are the Manu Samoa Sevens, Manusina Women’s 15s, Manusina Women’s 7s, Under 20s, Schoolboys 15s and other representative teams as required by IRB/FORU/SPG tournaments.
Currently the Manu Samoa 15s although all Samoan by ethnicity, are not resident in Samoa, and play their rugby internationally. The unavailability of high quality competitions such as Super 15s to Samoa has meant that unlike the Sevens pathway developed and assembled locally, the Manu Samoa 15s is dependent on offshore players that have contractual commitments to overseas clubs for their livelihoods.
 
Manu Samoa Team structure, policy
The structure of the Manu Samoa Team is: Head Coach, Manager, Assistant Coaches and assistant manager as the management team. These officials are selected and appointed by the SRU Board in advertised positions. Through their appointments the coaches and managers are empowered to select an international squad of Samoan Rugby players that have the capacity to bind and combine well together to deliver a style of play most advantageous to physical and mental makeup of Samoan players.

 The preferred requirements set by SRU Board for overseas players is that they must be playing Super 15s or ITM Cup, Manu Samoa Sevens, PRC or PNC or similar.

The RWC Campaign for 2011 was 13 months of preparation and planning and started from August 2010 and included the Northern Hemisphere Tour 2010, PRC, NPC, Wallabies Test Match and the two Western Force matches where SRU paid for the travel, accommodation and meals.

Rugby World Cup Campaign
The international assembly of the Manu Samoa meant that its likely players were spread around the globe internationally, unlike the bigger nations where most of its players are available in country. As the short assembly time for Manu Samoa in the past has always limited the playing team set moves, style of play and limited coach/player interaction and instruction, the SRU board chose to extend the assembly time of the Manu Samoa by using the Northern Hemisphere Tour, PRC, NPC, Wallabies Test Match and the two Western Force matches to foster learning, bonding coaching and develop the team to the highest quality possible. This resulted in high costs of international assembly of the team in management tracking of players including travel by coaches to overseas clubs, accommodation, meals, communication costs etc.

Fundraising
The Fundraising Campaign by the Fundraising Committee which was made up of SRU Members officers and volunteers of Samoa Rugby Union. It was planned and implemented through authority of the Samoa Rugby Board in response to a budget deficit. The three fundraising events were planned and implemented from May 2011. The Budget was set from November 2010 by the Rugby World Cup Committee and that budget included the following fixtures.

• Northern Hemisphere Tour with matches against Wales, Ireland and Scotland
• Pacific Rugby Cup
• Pacific Nations Cup
• Wallabies Test
• Two Western Force Matches
• Rugby World Cup Matches

There were other funding available for some or part of the fixtures, but in general the encompassing strategy was to resource and supplement these fixtures to unify the coaching methodology under the coaches and assistant coaches in terms of style of play, fitness strength and conditioning so as to peak performance for the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
The performance of Manu Samoa has improved since 2008 when Samoa played All Blacks and lost 100+ to 15.
Since the SRU Board has become more proactive in the planning of the Rugby World Cup, the margins between Samoa and the Tier 1 nations has dropped as in the Northern Hemisphere Tour 2010, and through our win against the Wallabies 2011.

Sponsorship
The Samoa Rugby Union is dependent on its Sponsors and the IRB for funding its programmes. The scale and scope of the SRU’s rugby work includes local tournaments at all levels, and international attendance to tournaments for representative teams.

Appreciation and Gratitude
The Samoa Rugby Union Board expresses its sincere thanks and appreciation to all its Manu Samoa RWC Players, Manu Samoa Sevens Players, Manusina Players, U20 Players, PNC & PRC Players, all Sponsors and Donors, the generous support from the Samoan public in Samoa and overseas. May God richly bless All who gave in kind, in spirit, in action and through your prayers and blessings.

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