A rugby earthquake has been averted. Former Stade Français and Toulon player Waisea Nayacalevu says Fiji threatened to strike and not play in the quarter-final against England at the last World Cup.
“If you don’t pay us before this date, we won’t play this quarter-final”. These are the words of Waisea Nayacalevu. The Fijian international center returned to an event that could have shaken up the last World Cup. For the second time in its history, Fiji managed to qualify for the quarter-finals, notably eliminating Australia in the group stageThe date with history was therefore set with England on October 15th.
But this match could have never seen the light of day. Indeed, in the columns of the Daily Mailthe former Toulon player explains that in the days preceding the match, a meeting was held between players. The subject of this meeting? Unpaid bonuses by the Federation: “We weren’t going to play the match against England. We wanted to go on strike. The Federation had promised us things that we didn’t receive. We had been promised bonuses.”
There is corruption in the Fiji Federation
A financial problem here during the competition but that the 2015 French champion includes in a scandal affecting the entire federation of his country. And we can say that he does not mince his words on this subject: “There is corruption in the Fiji Federation, says the player. I have played for Fiji for over 10 years and it has always been the same. This is not the first time… Boys half paid, others not even paid for weeks.”
Ultimately, tragedy was narrowly averted, with the money being paid to the players less than 48 hours before the quarter-final kick-off: “We were paid on the Thursday before the England game. That clearly distracted us.”. In the end, the Flying Fijians believed in it for a long time against Her Majesty’s subjects, before an Owen Farrell drop goal crucified them.
