Brendan Gallagher speaks to Firebrand Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu about preaching the message of alofa

As well as being a cracking Test centre and fly-half and a ‘have boots will travel’ professional for a decade or more, Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu has earned the reputation as the most eloquent and occasional profane and controversial spokesman on behalf of Samoan rugby.
A fiery, emotional individual on and off the field, he is one of those crusading voices that upsets the establishment and, by any criteria, he has occasionally overstepped the mark especially when he tries to convey angry and complex thoughts in a mere 140 characters. But as a qualified lawyer his incisive brain also finds the target with unnerving accuracy and frequency. He makes a lot of noise but let’s face it sometimes you do have to shout very loud indeed to be heard above some of the self-serving waffle the rugby establishment dishes up.
So as the first ever New Zealand Test in Samoa – indeed the first All Blacks Test at any of the Pacific Islands – on July 8 draws near I was expecting a few verbal exocets from the former Samoa centre about the sporting exploitation and abuse of his native land. And he certainly launched a couple with trademark relish but what I wasn’t quite prepared for was the hand of peace and conciliation being proffered.  Then again the Pacific Islands are like that – bellicose but hugely welcoming in the same breath
“Samoan, Hawaiian, Tongan, Fijian, Maori, we are all one Pacific race who navigated the Pacific ocean and traded with each other when Europeans still thought the world was flat,” says Eliota who has been agitating for an All Blacks Test in Apia for many years. “One of our main principles in the Pacific is what we call in Samoa, alofa, in Tongan, ofa, in Hawaii, aloha and in Maori, aroha. It is love.
“When the All Blacks arrive in Samoa next week they will be received with love, like all guests to the Pacific are. The battle to bring the All Blacks to Samoa is over. It is a time for celebration and alofa.  I wouldn’t be surprised if there is more support for the All Blacks than for Manu Samoa. Samoans are just like that. The place will be buzzing from the moment they touch down.
“Love transcends rugby. Samoans have been waiting for this moment for generations. It’s a time for positivity and happiness and true celebration of the true principles of rugby and humanity. There is so much more to do, obviously, with regards to the way Pacific teams are treated in World Rugby but on this day, the guns will be lowered and beers will be raised. Whoever wins I don’t really care. There will be children in the crowd who will be enjoying their happiest day ever.
“Whether or not it’s a token gesture will remain to be seen but the All Blacks should be given the benefit of the doubt. This should be seen as a positive step by New Zealand to finally acknowledge that Samoa exists beyond the capacity of merely being a rugby goldmine whose raw material they can continue to quarry and exploit. The plane that has taken so many rugby players to New Zealand is finally coming back and the All Blacks are on it. We will celebrate the occasion like a family member we haven’t seen in a very long time.”
That’s a huge dollop of alofa from a man who seems to have been fighting battles against rugby elitism for most of his career but don’t be fooled into thinking he is going soft. He still has any number of strong points to make. Not least the responsibility of the Tier One Nations to drag themselves away from their self-serving cartel – two votes at the top table to every other nation’s one – and to start re-engaging seriously again with developing the rugby world. Are they remotely interested in a global game or does the perpetuation of their cosy club remain paramount?
“I hope this match opens the door to the Pacific and that other big teams from Europe and the Rugby Championship start visiting us regularly. The Scotland boys loved their time here the other year. We are not selfish, we don’t expect the All Blacks to play here every year, and we know that is not possible or realistic. But the Tier One Nations need to do something for Rugby with a capital R.
“Has anybody ever stopped to consider that it is the Tier Two Nations – with way less resources than any of the Tier One Nations – who spread the gospel and make rugby a global game in the first place? Doesn’t that strike you as odd? I have played for Manu Samoa against Papua New Guinea in PNG and also played Tests in Georgia and Romania. Japan play all the PacRim countries plus the likes of Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Fiji play the Cook Islands in the Cooks Islands. Yet come every November the Island teams are also expected to travel to Europe and be competitive against Tier One Nations.
“And every four years we are expected to contest the World Cup. Tier One countries just show up at the ‘World’ Cup and steal the spotlight but they have contributed nothing to the ‘world’ game. At least this match with New Zealand in Apia acknowledges the hard work and sacrifice Tier 2 teams make to the game of Rugby.
“Why don’t the big teams come to the Islands? With consistent enterprise and creative business nous I’m sure such tours will not only be self-sustainable but in high demand. After all, tourists all over the world flock to the Pacific to holiday, to get away from their concrete covered, traffic jam frustrated, Starbucks stained, over polluted, city prisons. The Pacific is the most beautiful place for fans and players.”
Most of Eliota’s comments on World Rugby (aka the old IRB) are unprintable in a family newspaper after he received a six month suspended ban for a series of tweets that were deemed to bring the game into disrepute at the RWC2011. But to even things up he is almost as hard on what he sees as compliant Tier 2 Unions and Federations who let the game’s administrators and money men trample all over them
“World Rugby? These are the same people who treated me like a criminal when I commented about the unfair treatment of poor teams. I have no respect for them. I don’t care about what Word Rugby can and can’t do. What I do care about is how Pacific administrations react to them. I’m a firm believer in, ‘You are treated how you want to be treated’. If you don’t like the way you are treated then do something about it. Silence is compliance.
“So when the Manu Samoa vs England game sells out in Twickenham and generates over £7m for the RFU and Samoa get a big fat zero from it, I don’t care about what World Rugby does or thinks. What I do care is putting pressure on the Samoan Rugby Union to grow a pair and do something about it!
“Where is the business acumen? Where are the guts? Why are we not receiving a cut from these agreements? Then you realise these exploitive agreements have been in place for over a decade and not just with Samoa and not just in England. Tonga also have these agreements. It’s atrocious. But this has been rugby for decades and it’s time Pacific teams do something about it. Pacific teams have huge leverage in the game and we need to swing it and slap some people in the face.”
Indeed. A measly and unacceptable £300 a man is what the Samoan players earned during their 28-9 defeat against England in front of an 82,000 crowd in November. There will be some high rolling fans who ran up a bigger wine bill before half-time at Twickenham that day. Samoa are box office – no other Tier 2 nation would guarantee a crowd that big – and as the ‘talent’ they should be suitably rewarded. Or at least their Union should and then it’s up to the players to thrash out a legally binding contract that ensures that a reasonable proportion of the money be directed to those who earned it. And I know just the man to do that.
Fuimaono-Sapolu played in 23 Tests for Samoa in a seven year international career that included two World Cups. In 2007 he stepped in as an emergency fly-half and did a fine job in a generally under-performing team while in 2011 he emerged as one of the best centres at the tournament.
He was certainly the stand-out performer in their 13-5 defeat against South Africa, a score line that rather flattered the winners. His best season on the pitch was 2011 when he won every award available at Gloucester and also earned one of the five RPA nominations as Player of the Year. Gloucester was a great experience and he enjoyed his time at Bath and more recently the Coca Cola Red West Sparks in Japan but nothing he insists can ever top playing for Samoa
“There is a saying ‘Greatness is measured by the adversities one must overcome’. With all the adversities Manu Samoa overcome simply to play Test rugby I realise, that I played for the greatest team in the world.
“Paying for our own flights. Having our pay in England cut while we play for Samoa. Losing thousands playing for Samoa. Homemade training equipment. Big stones. Rope tied around tyres to use as sleds. Cheap accommodation. Flying at the back of the plane while the All Blacks are on the same flight in first class. Rubbish international referees. Being banned for tweeting when England were not punished for cheating when they tampered with the balls. Having some Samoan Rugby Union Board members take all the kit and eat the food before the players. Half the team having nothing to eat because board members brought their families to eat all the food.
“Sitting in a hotel room refusing to play a game against Western Force, delaying the kick-off for an hour. Then beating them with all their stars and we had a team of locals. Having to represent my teammates in judicial hearings because I was the only lawyer in the team and we couldn’t afford a lawyer. Refusing to play against Australia because there was no insurance cover for us and then only finding out the morning of the game that we had coverage. Constantly wondering why is the rugby world so reluctant to visit Samoa? Why must we always be the ones to travel? It is ridiculous the amount of sh*t we were dragged through.
“But there are also so many funny, great memories with players and fans, the people we play for. I can’t begin to describe what Samoa and Samoans mean to me.
“An elderly English woman once asked me how many people are there in Samoa? I said about 180,000. She said, ‘Wow. What an exclusive club!’ And that’s what it feels like.”