Samoan claim denied

Press, 4 February 1986, Page 38

Samoan claim denied

PA Wellington Neither favouritism nor discrimination had played a part in the omission of Western Samoa from rugby’s first World Cup, said an organising committee member, Dick Littlejohn, yesterday. The Samoan national coach, George Meredith, claimed on Sunday that his team had accepted an invitation to tour South Africa because it had been neglected by Australia and New Zealand and snubbed by World Cup organisers.

Mr Meredith said that Samoa’s record in Pacific tournaments had been ignored and it had been discriminated against because of colour and its record of rough play. Mr Littlejohn, however, denied that colour or reputation had influenced the organisers’ decision.

“Rugby is played in well over 100 countries and when you have a limited number of places in a competition — in this case 16 — someone is going to be disappointed,” he said. “Ideally we would have liked to have a qualifying tournament to select the teams but time didn’t permit “In the next cup in 1991, some sort of qualifying system will apply.” Mr Littlejohn said that a recent three-nations tournament in Apla in which Samoa beat both Fiji and Tonga, the island representatives at the World Cup, had not been a criteria for World Cup selection.

“We had no desire to exclude anyone,” he said. “In fact we would have liked to invite every rugby-playing nation — someone told me there are 167 — and play qualifying matches, but that was not possible.”