Nick Cain: Contract blackmail harms World Cup

The parlous state of the Tier Two nations was emphasised this week by Dan Leo, the Samoa and London Irish lock. Leo said that leading European clubs were putting pressure on their Pacific Island players to make themselves unavailable for the 2015 World Cup and using contractual incentives to achieve it.
Although Leo is the first player to have taken the lid off this circumvention of World Rugby‘s Regulation 9, which governs international player release, it has been an open secret since the 2003 World Cup.
Before that tournament, and the 2007 and 2011 editions, Pacific Islanders have been ‘encouraged’ by French and English clubs not to play for their countries – including being threatened with non-renewal of contracts, and having salaries docked.
Leo, 32, who leaves London Irish at the end of this season, said: “There’s no hints or beating around the bush, they come out and say ‘stop playing for your country’.”
Leo revealed also that the penalties for not heeding the warnings from their  Top 14 or Premiership employers can lead to a 40 per cent reduction in earnings. This explains why Census Johnston, the Samoan powerhouse considered to be one of the best tight-head props in the world game, has just retired from international rugby despite signing a new contract with Toulouse.
It will be interesting to see if his  Toulouse team-mate,  impressive lock Joe Tekori, can escape the Top 14 side’s clutches to play for Samoa in this World Cup.
The weakening of the Samoa, Fiji and Tonga squads is a major concern, because the competitive base of the 2015 tournament is in danger of being damaged beyond repair. No Tier Two nation have made the semi-finals of the World Cup, and just three have made the quarter-finals (Fiji and Samoa, twice each, and Canada once) in seven tournaments.
This week World Rugby was in their usual rabbit-in-the-headlights mode with chief executive Brett Gosper saying: “While club sides are gathering all-stars from around the world, I think there is a feeling that there has to be some steps taken to ensure the profile of the national team has integrity.”
This, said Gosper, would involve a dreaded “working group”. That means at least another year before a problem which has been undermining the World Cup for 13 years is tackled.