Throughout the world keeping political interference out of sport is explicitly written into the good Constitutions of sports bodies and their regulators. ​Tonga Rugby​ is no exception, but for the past two and a half years I have observed the intertwining of the ​TRU Leadership,​ in its quest for financial gain and personal advantage, and a ​political party​ in its quest to capture votes.

The responses of the other main stakeholders, the ​clubs, World Rugby ​and the government ​are varied but all have, to date, failed to put a stop to the perceived manipulation and illegalities, and the ineptitude of the leadership.

The four main stakeholders, while passionate, are confused as to their respective roles but all endeavour to fill the gaps left by the leadership. But this confusion, ironically, has allowed that leadership to prosper and continue. The result is ​that Tonga Rugby​ and the ​Tonga Rugby Union​ are not only broke but also broken.

This is ​not hard to fix. New self awareness of the respective roles of each stakeholder can lead the way forward to a Rugby Union, which is principled and centred around good governance.

Tonga Rugby Union

The Tonga Rugby Union has 82 clubs divided among four sub-unions. Vava’u, Ha’apai and Eua Rugby Unions are regarded as the outer islands and hold about 20 percent of the rugby population. The fourth sub-union is the Tongatapu Rugby Union that holds 80% of the rugby population. There is a Women’s Competition on the main island of Tongatapu. There is a healthy College/High School Competition; the Primary School/Grassroots Programme has just been commissioned by Tongatapu Rugby Sub-Union, which is wonderful news.

If you ask rugby board members from any club, coaches or the rugby volunteers if they had assistance from TRU, most will say that they had little help or worse still, they encountered resistance to carry out their programmes. This has been an issue for women’s rugby in Tonga for many years. Rugby in Tonga, in essence, is being run by a leadership out of touch with its rugby base. Clubs often organise ad-hoc competitions to supplement what TRU provide in Tonga as there is little direction or funding from TRU.

A similar issue happens with the Tonga National Team, the 'Ikale Tahi. Funding for test matches and tournament preparations are beelined from World Rugby to the national 'Ikale Tahi team, bypassing the TRU. World Rugby are liaising directly with the 'Ikale Tahi management and coach, which is the Job of the TRU ICEO - who only puts the TRU stamp on the transaction for acknowledgement.

So what is TRU doing? That is a good question. TRU immediately after the 2015 and 2019 RWC should have shared a comprehensive Strategic and Operations Plan of how it will generate its budget to get this all done.

Unfortunately, since 2015 our TRU has struggled and failed every year to hold a proper AGM.

Tonga’s previous Prime Minister Hon. 'Akilisi Pohiva was a champion for the democracy movement in Tonga for over three decades. He did not need the TRU President role to win votes, our people loved him without buying into the Rugby Union gimmick, but somehow it became a party strategy to take over Rugby Union and Rugby League. The unfortunate side effect of choosing this strategy, broke its own political party values of transparency, fairness and allowed little to no checks on abuse by those in the TRU leadership. The vision of what democracy could bring for Tonga was not looking very fair.

TRU Representatives