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ST ETIENNE - Fiji, Tonga and Samoa need to be given a professional boost if they are to be capable of posing a genuine World Cup threat to the game's traditional powerhouses, according to outgoing Samoa coach Michael Jones.
Jones said that while world rugby chiefs had initiated some changes to improve Pacific rugby, a "more fundamental shift" was required.
"The gap between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' still exists," said the outspoken Jones, who was an integral part of the All Blacks team that claimed the inaugural World Cup in 1987, but also won one cap for Samoa a year before thanks to his Samoan heritage.
"There are great and well meaning initatives that are put in place, but for me they are not going to really bring about the real change that is required.
"The biggest change is to have Samoan teams in a fully professional league. Whether it's in the Super 14 or if it's in Europe, we don't care.
"We just need a professional league so we can contract our best 30-35 players as they do in the Super 14, having them playing to a template, being able to coach them full time and then be able to play high-intensity rugby week in week out for three months."
Jones said that Samoa and other Pacific teams would always be playing "catch-up when you come to play any team that has fully professional programmes".
"I can promise you that if Samoa, and Tonga or Fiji, were in one of those competitions you would see them step up very quickly, faster than Italy did when it became involved in the Six Nations.
Jones, whose side won only one of their four World Cup matches - against the United States 25-21 on Wednesday - added that it would not be a problem for a Samoan team to be based in Europe should that offer the degree of professionalism required.
"If we had to base the whole team in France or (play in the) European Cup, we'd do it because that's number one missing ingredient in our success and growth," said the former flanker.
"The academies are great back in Islands but that's a long-term strategy.
"It's going to take something significant to happen, otherwise we'll have our days, like we did four years ago, because we're gifted and passionate but they'll be far and few between."
Jones also accused the 20-nation World Cup of being a tournament that boiled to real competition between five or six teams, with the results of underfunded minnows showing how underpowered they are on the field against professional outfits.
"The World Cup needs one of the smaller nations to make not just the quarters but the semis. Then I believe the global game would have arrived. But at the moment we're kidding ourselves, it's really just a Super five or six tournament."
Jones said the situation required someone with "enough vision and guts" to stand up and bring the Samoans into the fold of a professional league.
"I'll always champion it," he said. "These are some of the most gifted, unique players in the world. There's a dimension and flair only the Pacific can bring. The person who steps up as part of a tournament is going to be a winner."
He called upon Samoa's Pacific rim neighbours Australia and New Zealand, as well as their Tri-Nations rivals South Africa, to offer to play more games against developing countries.
"There hasn't been enough foresight. Maybe too many of the 'haves' only want to play amongst themselves and that's tragic, and as a proud New Zealander, quite hurtful.
"It needs to come from some of our big brothers, especially South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, to let us come and play more and play more together otherwise we'll just be left in the wilderness.
"We'll have all these wonderful little programmes we're not going to see exponential growth we need and world needs to see.
"We'll keep shuffling along, we won't be making strides."
He added: "Tonga might get up one day and almost beat South Africa, we might get up one day and might beat England.
"But I think it'd be a tragedy that in at least my generation I won't see Samoa, Tonga or Fiji upset one of world's superpowers.
"I'm trying to keep faith in the powers that be. But there needs to be some big changes fast, or we'll be talking about the same thing in four years' time."
- AFP
