Pacific

Samoa quits the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance

17:49 pm on 17 July 2009

The Samoa Rugby Union has quit the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance.

The Samoa Observer reports that the Chief Executive of Samoa Rugby says they have advised PIRA of their decision, as they believe the alliance including Fiji, Samoa and Tonga has not met its objectives.

Su'a Peter Schuster says the original concept was to provide an opportunity to play every two years with two key aims: to get revenue to help the unions run their activities and secondly to provide players the opportunity to play against top tier teams.

But since the alliance began, the International Rugby Board changed the schedule for the Pacific Islands team to play every four years.

Su'a says fixtures every four years will not generate the revenue and the individual nations in the combined side also need to promote their products.

He claims the alliance has failed to attract more sponsorship for his union.