“God help Fiji Rugby” – wrote the veteran Fiji Sun scribe, Leone Cabenatabua, in a weekend editorial – as he analysed the panic-driven decision to replace the British-born Sevens rugby coach, Ben Gollings, with the local star player, Osea Kolinisau. And God help Osea Kolinisau if he can’t make the Fiji Sevens team more competitive four months out from the Olympic Games in Paris.
Cebenatabua was reflecting a great deal of concern on the part of a many Fijians about the politicisation of Fiji rugby and especially the astonishing public statements last week by the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, and the Attorney General, Siromi Turaga, criticising the performance of both the Sevens and the Fiji Rugby Union.
A week ago after the opening of parliament, the Prime Minister demanded that the FRU call a meeting to address the performance of the national sevens team and its failure to win a single leg of the competition since Ben Gollings appointment. Incredibly, he said that if the FRU didn’t call a meeting, the government would. Of course we know what happened. The FRU called a meeting and by week’s end, the personally well-liked though professionally struggling Ben Gollings was gone.
The FRU head, Peter Mazey, somewhat strangely said that Golling’s dedication and efforts had been “commendable” but “we must prioritise our ultimate goal of securing medals” at the Olympics. A “fresh perspective and expertise” was needed, he said. Whether a player, albeit a star player like Osea Kolinisau, has more expertise than a professional coach remains to be seen. But if the Sevens do poorly in Paris, Kolinisau is going to fall from his perch as national hero with a very big thud. Rooster to feather duster isn’t even the half of it if he can’t deliver, given the near hysteria behind the scenes.
Yet there’s something deeply disturbing about the sight of politicians like the PM and AG weighing into something in which they definitely have no expertise. Rugby is a game, for God’s sake. You win some, you lose some. You have no control over your opponents and they may just be fielding stronger teams. But there’s also a limit to how much influence you can have over the performance of your own team and it doesn’t include politicians giving the professionals their grog-bowl reflections on how to do better.
It was painfully obvious that neither the PM or the AG actually had any idea what needed to be done to lift the performance of the national team. It was merely a case of “something must be done” because, well, it’s important for Fiji and even more important for us. Everyone remembers how much political capital Frank Bainimarama and Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum got from the Olympic gold medal in Rio De Janeiro. So imagine the terror that Sitiveni Rabuka and Siromi Turaga must feel about not only the prospect of no victory parades after Paris but the ignominy of defeat that will inevitably rub off on them.
Still, it’s extraordinary and decidedly reckless of them to defy the World Rugby edict that governments butt out of the sport. Fiji was already in trouble over the gross politicisation of the FRU under Frank Bainimarama so we might have expected Sitiveni Rabuka and Siromi Turaga to have got the message that Fiji is on notice. No such luck. Just as the more things change, the more they stay the same over every other aspect of this government’s conduct, the more they stay with same with rugby.
There’s another element to this that is very unsettling – the suspicion that ethnicity has played a part in Ben Golling’s removal. Has the government been motivated to get rid of a “white” coach and replace him with an iTaukei in the same way that it removed the Assistant DPP, Elizabeth Rice, because she was “white”? It isn’t an unreasonable suspicion given this government’s conduct. But just as putting an iTaukei into the ODPP isn’t going to make the ODPP perform better, putting an iTaukei in as coach of the Sevens isn’t guaranteed to make the “pride of Fiji” perform any better. The prayers may be more fervent but prayer doesn’t win Olympic gold medals.
Poor Peter Mazey. He was famously close to Frank Bainimarama and has been one of the few people to keep his head and make the transition to the new order. He must have felt like a slice of Spam wedged between two pieces of stale bread during the week as he juggled the forces ranged against him – the politicians breathing down his neck, the pressure from the media and World Rugby and the even greater pressure to make the right decision to give Fiji the best possible chance in Paris.
Mazey is now the last white man standing but he too will be a feather duster if the choice of Osea Kolinisau proves to be the wrong one. But it is Sitiveni Rabuka and Siromi Turaga who will deserve the biggest kicking if the Olympic bid goes pear-shaped. They could have stayed out of it and escaped censure by saying “ well, you win some and you lose some and we’re still proud of our boys”. But by forcing their way onto the field fists swinging when they needn’t have been there, they are now part of the game. And if Fiji loses, they will be the biggest losers politically because they were stupid enough to place themselves at the centre of the action.
It will be a nail-biting four months to Paris. And, yes, God help Fijian rugby. And for that matter, God help the rest of us.
A very sad ruling for Ben Gollings. As with everything in Fiji, once you put a few itaukeis in positions of leadership, everything falls to sh*t. Very few posses the intellect, expertise and exposure to rule from positions of wisdom and loyalty. Fijians work on feeble emotion. Malua fever. Fiji time. Village mentality. Banana republic.
Before calling for order at the FRU, Sitiveni would do well to call for the removal of his loose goose Minister for Women.
And while there are some in Fiji with the independent thinking necessary for leadership, once they are in a position of power, all those family and extended family connections that lean on the kere kere system place more pressure on them than they can bear emotionally. In such a small island nation, expatriates are needed for there to be independence of the judiciary (and likely other areas). When everyone is related to or knows everyone, there is no such thing as fair process without them. The moment the Coalition started expelling expats, they started an attack on democratic fair process that will take decades to bounce back from, if ever.
Discipline has been Fijis biggest problem ever since
Coach doesn’t advise you to lift a player and ram him to the ground
Coach doesn’t teach you to tackle the head not the leg
Coach doesn’t teach you to kick the ball away when referee’s blow whistle to stop play
And many more
These are some downfall of Fiji players
Yellow card and red card
6 players or 5 player s in sevens is a very hard ask to win a game
Statistics show Fiji was the most capped card team ever
Not sure if Osea has any coaching experience
His been a good player
Playing and coaching is 2 different things
These days rugby has gone to another level
Look at Spain,a football nation,
These days they play finals in sevens rugby
If Team doesn’t win,look at everything
How players perform should be a major factor
Misplaced priorities. There are other pressing issues that warrants government attention with the promptness that Rabuka and SIROMI pressured the FRU to dispense with Gollings.
Pathetic indeed.
An overreacted ruling that costs Ben his contract. The FRU is supposed to be an independent body. The best it should do is to an analysis of all the games Ben took part in and see (based on analytical statistics) the performances of each player that were chosen during this time to find out the real causes of our 7s team’s downfall…the result will amaze many because the real downfall of our team’s performance is not Ben and his coaching staff but the below par mental, psychological and intellectual ability of some of our current 7s players to make decision & game management during the knock stages of the tournament.
Dina kece kemuni Ratu Paula. Why the crosshairs on the coach only and not the players.
Anyway, I hope Kolinisau has a winning formula.
Was the appointment of the new coach, Osea Kolinisau, a fair process? I don’t recall the position being advertised, applicants short listed and then the best contender chosen by FRU.
Can’t help thinking the new coach was riding a surging wave of localisation sentiment and exploited this to bypass the normal coach selection process.
Kolinisau should avoid being in the Fiji Sevens altogether if he can. FRU is politicized and there’s no structure. It’s a gamble if he takes on the role; succeed and he’ll be placed on a pedestal, fail and he’ll be torn apart and spat out. By the way. how did Kolinisau get the job so quickly? Was the role advertised? Seems like the plan to replace Gollings with Kolinisau was was put in motion months ago.
With all due respect to Kolinisau being a good player, captain and Olympic gold medallist what credentials, qualifications, sevens coaching track record does he bring into this role? None I guess. Just because some former players want him to coach, the FRU goes ahead and names him the coach. This is absurd. When the team does not win, who will the public blame? Kolinisau or former players for nominating his name. The answer is crystal clear. World rugby must investigate the Fiji govt’s direct interference in the governing of the FRU’s affairs and must take swift action.
Big fan of Kolinasau. Fijians are known for their natural ability and self taught inclinations. A few lessons here and there and they get it ‘ In school or in rugby under the best coach in the world. Could Kolinisau be the one to showcase and take Fijian flair to another level? Wait for it.
Very simple. Osea K knows what it takes to win an Olympic gold medal. Ben G doesn’t. Feel sorry for Ben but he kept on doing the same thing hoping for different results for 19 tournaments. It would be insane not to do anything.
All of the saga at Rugby house in recent months is due to the ignorance of Siromi Turaga who proclaimed soon after coming into power that the FRU was an unregistered body, He forced the resignation of the old committee and ensured its replacement by unregistered lawyer Nawaletabua as administrator and the appointment of a committee of volunteers that elected Fiji First Party supporter, Peter Mazey as their spokesman.
The fact of the matter was under the well known automy principle of Olympic sports the FRU was registered not with govt as a charitable trust as Siromi had highlighted, but it was registered with FASANOC, the nation’s National Olympic Committee. This was in line with international practice and totally acceptable to World Rugby and the International Olympic Committee.
Weaknesses in Olympic House in Flagstaff, Suva allowed this current set up to continue. Past leadership would not have allowed this nonsense to continue. There is little World Rugby can do when the National Olympic Committee goes along sheepishly with government interference.
Anything Sitiveni and Siromi lay their hands on turns to shit very quickly. Both are disastrously incompetent and prone to impulsive, reactionary decision-making. I hope World Rugby comes down hard on FRU and exposes these two for the muppets they really are.
OMG Graham Davis writing about local rugby … whatever will happen next??!
You can always rely on Leone Cabenatabua to be on the wrong side of every issue like a George Monbiot or post-Cambodia John Pilger. He was the mouthpiece at the Fiji Sun who the former Valekau administration used when wanting to brief against any and everyone including the ‘whites’ you are so sensitive about like Ben Ryan and John McKee.
I am sure if you asked either of them, or Gareth Baber, they would laugh at the idea that Leone had any opinion of his own, let alone worth using as the basis for one of your columns. He has proven himself as happy to dole out ‘anti-white’ attacks as you infer could have contributed to Gollings’ dismissal.
In a November 2019 column, Leone heralded local coach Senirusi Seruvakula and said Senirusi’s arrival meant it was time for McKee to leave the FRU because, ‘the fact that under his watch the Flying Fijians didn’t do well at the 2015 and 2019 World Cups, suggests that we need a new head coach who can bring in innovative ideas.’
Perhaps Leone’s most ignominious moment was serving as the columnist that channeled Francis Kean’s fury at prominent ‘white’ Ben Ryan, when Ryan had the temerity to question the reported $1m in fees, consultancies and costs that the FRU/taxpayer was covering to bid for the hosting rights to a leg of the global 7s Series [How did that go by the way folks?!].
Ryan, who last time I checked was a ‘white’, also drew attention to the fact the people behind Kean’s 7s bid were in several cases the same as those who ran the ruinously expensive and fabulously unimpactful Natadola PGA event, churning through more than $50m in taxpayer funding over the course of that tournament’s unhappy history.
Being the dreck of a newspaper that it then was, the Fiji Sun declined even to report Ryan’s initial comments in January 2018 instead saying [*looking at notes from Chairman Kean splenetic attacks…] ‘a show of maturity on [Ryan’s] part would have gone a long way. The true motive behind his posting is only best known to him.’
In truth, Rabuka and Bainimarama have both taken control of and used the FRU for their own political ends. In Bainimarama’s case, his coup took place in 2011 when he [via Min of Education and Sport Filipe Bole] threatened to withdraw all Govt funding from the 2011 RWC unless the elected board of the FRU resigned. Bill Gavoka was the FRU’s elected chairman at the time.
Rabuka’s coup was in April last year when his idiot AG confected an entirely avoidable and unnecessary constitutional crisis that has seen Mazey and his appointed trustees take over but at the cost of Fiji being suspended from the World Rugby Council – just at the point where having a voice on that Council could have been so critical.
I feel sorry for Mazey and his trustees. I am sure they had the best of motives in accepting the AG’s invitation to serve. But they are now acting as stab vests, taking a beating from the rugby public while protecting the Govt from the lunacy of the AG’s decisions.