From lef: Waisea Nayacalevu, Levani Botia, Albert Tuisue and Semi Radradra
Senior players including some current members of the Flying Fijians want a change at Fiji Rugby Union.
This comes as they have lend support to World Cup captain Waisea Nayacalevu’s claims against the union in an interview with Daily Mail last week.
Nayacalevu had raised several issues and called for a total overhaul at Rugby House.
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In an exclusive interview with FBC Sports, players, including Levani Botia, Viliame Mata, Albert Tuisue and Drua skipper Meli Derenalagi have spoken for the first time.
Contributions were also made by Sam Matavesi and Semi Radradra through Nayacalevu, as both had flights to catch and couldn’t join the zoom call with FBC Sports.
Sam Matavesi
The players collectively called for an immediate clean-up at Rugby House and expressed their decision to take a stand for the future of Fijian rugby, despite having dealt with the same issues for years.
Flanker, Botia, says the motivation to continue training and perform, including reaching the World Cup quarterfinals last year, came from their families and making the nation proud.
They also believed that the payments promised to them would be delivered.
Botia says they often reminded the team to stay focused and give their best for Fiji and their families on the world stage, but delays in payments took a mental toll, especially with bills to pay and families depending on them.
“We kept pushing the players to play because this is something we talk about is that we have to play and not worry about the money, they (FRU) will do their job and we trusted them to do their job so some of the boys did not receive their payment and some of the boys do not have their bonus.”
Levani Botia [Source: Fiji Rugby]
Botia adds after Fiji reached the World Cup quarterfinal in France last year, something else was explained to them in terms of the promised payment.
According to him, they were promised a payment for reaching the quarter-finals and not winning it.
“They did not believe that we would reach the quarter-final so once we reached the quarter-final and then we start think about what they said to us and when we got back to them they gave us another explanation – they said that once we pass the quarter-final they will then pay us the money and this was not part of our conversation in the beginning of our preparations.”
Botia also thanked Nayacalevu for taking a bold step and highlighting this ongoing issue.
Albert Tuisue, Levani Botia, Waisea Nayacalevu and Viliame Mata in a zoom call with FBC Sports Journalist Taina Tuwai
Last week the FRU released a statement after Nayacalevu made the claims.
Waisea Nayacalevu [Source: World Rugby]
The FRU said that after negotiations, it was agreed that each Flying Fijian squad member (33 players) would receive a sign on fee of $30,000 and an allowance of $500 per day from 16 July to 15 October 2023 (91 days).
With Government backing, bonuses were offered at that time of $30,000 for winning the quarter-final, $40,000 for winning the semi final and $50,000 for winning the final.
Questions have also been sent to the FRU regarding the new claims by the players but they have yet to respond.
Meanwhile, FBC Sports has also gathered the recent matches including that against the All Blacks in July faced numerous issues.
These included late payments to at least three players, luggage issues and also the FRU credit card declined at times.
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