Rugby World Cup 2019: ‘No reason’ why England wouldn’t tour Pacific Islands, says Scott Wisemantel

Wisemantel combines his England role with his work for the World Rugby Combine and has urged the RFU to commit to a tour to help Fiji, Tonga and Samoa to develop

The Rugby Football Union has been told it is not above touring the Pacific Islands to help the development of Tonga, Fiji and Samoa by one of its own coaches, having not visited the region for 28 years.

England have played in the Fijian capital of Suva just twice in their history, firstly in 1988 and then again three years later ahead of the 1991 Rugby World Cup, while they have never visited Samoa or Tonga.

Both Scotland and Italy toured Fiji two years ago while Wales played in Samoa the same summer, yet England have avoided the Pacific Islands for nearly three decades as it does a tour would not work financially for the RFU.

But the current England attack coach, Scott Wisemantel, has urged the RFU to commit to a tour in the future that would see them play games against the Pacific nations even if it does not make sense money-wise, and believes that the nation that invented the sport should not count itself above the rest of the rugby union-playing countries.

With England set to begin their Rugby World Cup campaign against Tonga on Sunday, Wisemantel said: “They need to play consistently against the best. The problem is the revenue, whether financially it can be done, that’s the biggest issue. In regard to that, potentially a solution is that in the November window, the Pacific nations get to play one of the big dogs at one of the big stadiums and they get a piece of the pie.”

“But there’s no reason you couldn’t go there. Other teams have been there, Italy did it a few years ago. I don’t think that just because it’s England you can think you’re above everyone else. There’s no reason you can’t go there, it’s just what you tack on along the way so if you tack on a game against Australia or New Zealand or whoever, then you make it viable as a tour. But it’s a long way to go.”

“I’m not an administrator but you look at tier one vs tier one, as opposed to tier one going to the islands to watch it on a different time zone. It makes it very difficult.”

Wisemantel combines his commitments on Eddie Jones’s backroom staff with his work for the World Rugby Combine, a project aimed to accelerate the development of rugby players under the age of 23 across the Pacific nations by identifying the talented individuals, placing them with pre-selected clubs across the globe that are picked on the basis of player welfare, support and financial reward, and helping to bring money back into the countries through the wages that are sent back to families and villages across Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, as is the way of Polynesian life.

“Before we run the combine they play a series and they are capped so they are capped pre-combine and we then move them around,” adds Wisemantel, who confirms this is done to ensure they are not then picked up by whichever countries they move to.

“It’s a great initiative by World Rugby and it’s worth digger deeper and having a look at. They are capped before they come into the combine so we pick the cream of the three nations, bring them in, test them for a week, put them in game situations, drill situations, testing and just see where they can fit in. And then, there’s another layer to it. Say there are three clubs looking at a certain player, say they are of Tongan descent, we then find the best fit of those three, it’s not just about the money, it’s where there is a Tongan community so we know they’ve had Tongan players before and there’s a support network and they go there.

“The last piece of the puzzle is that there are no agents in this process and it’s a flat cap. There might be a few add-ons but the actual bottom dollar line is the same across all three. So you actually alleviate a lot of the problems with oneupmanship and that sort of thing. It’s a really good process.”

But the issue is that while World Rugby appears determined to improve the standard of rugby in the Pacific Islands, the leading unions do not. England and Ireland will continue to avoid the area along with New Zealand, Australia and South Africa – with the extent of their help stretching to Super Rugby games that are sometimes played in Suva.

The issue that Wisemantel identifies is that should England tour there, the lack of interest from back in the United Kingdom would be sizeable due to the time difference, with matches typically taking place at approximately 5am.

“It’s an early start to watch a game in the Pacific Islands and you go, ‘OK, who are they?’ he adds. “So unless you’re a real rugby follower you might go, ‘England are playing Tonga or Samoa... If you’re into football…[maybe not]. I’d like to see it happen but will it happen? I don’t think so.”

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