Samoa’s Rugby World Cup dream is still alive after World Rugby recommended the 2021 women’s tournament be postponed until next year due to the ongoing effects of Covid-19.
The World Cup was scheduled to be held in New Zealand in September and October but the governing body said it had become clear that it’s not possible to deliver the environment for all teams to be at their best.
Fiji was poised to make its World Cup debut in New Zealand while Samoa were among a host of teams still trying to qualify for the 12 team tournament.
Manusina coach, Ramsey Tomokino, heard whispers the tournament could be delayed and said the announcement from World Rugby made sense.
“There was a lot of uncertainty and we were just, with our management group, having a discussion last night and I just had actually mentioned without seeing the news until this morning that it looked every chance that the World Cup it’s looking likely it’s going to be postponed and certainly the news came through.”
“World Rugby they’re committed to trying to resolve the qualification on the field and it turned out the qualifier wasn’t going to happen and the World Cup was not postponed then it was going to come down to rankings and we obviously would have missed out on attending, so it’s a welcome decision for us and our players.”
Samoa were due to compete in the final Rugby World Cup qualification tournament in Europe although the other three participants are yet to be confirmed.
A date in May had been pencilled in but Tomokino said quarantine and border restrictions were making the qualification process unworkable.
“If the qualifiers did go ahead there was no way we’d be able to get back into New Zealand because the Managed Isolation Quarantine (facilities) are booked out for months,” he said.
“They were trying to find a venue where it could be played where you didn’t have to quarantine but obviously most countries you will have to quarantine. Even if we did find somewhere where you didn’t have to quarantine it was the issue of us getting back as well.”
Even if the all 12 countries made it into New Zealand, the Manusina coach said the prospect of over 300 players preparing for the pinnacle event in the women’s rugby calendar by the spending two weeks stuck in a hotel room did not make sense.
“Covid’s not going away in a hurry and we’re obviously in lockdown now (in Auckland) and the other issue is…the whole how they were going to manage quarantine for that many people coming in (to New Zealand) from that many countries.”
The proposed delay will be considered by the Rugby World Cup Board and World Rugby Executive Committee next week and RNZ understands the postponement will be confirmed.
The Manusina now plan to “take a breath and regroup” but remain hopeful of arranging some competitive matches later in the year against other Pacific Island nations who are based in New Zealand.
Fiji Rugby said it will not comment until a decision has been made on 9 March by the World Rugby Board.
