It’s two years since World Rugby made a decision that will make Rugby World Cup 2023 different from any other event in the tournament’s history.
For more than 20 years, there had been a rule that a player could turn out for only one nation in his career – to play even in an “A” side or a sevens team meant being “captured” by that nation for life. In the professional era, that rule has required young men – overwhelmingly of Pacific heritage and mostly, but not exclusively, who had played for the All Blacks – to make huge decisions.
If they accepted contracts with European clubs that offered financial security for their families, they could never play international rugby again, even for the country where they were born. Now, subject to a three-year stand-down and birth or parental connections, they can.
So it is that Tonga will go into the World Cup with half a dozen world-class players and high hopes. Two of those players, Charles Piutau and Malakai Fekitoa, open up about their decisions in depth for the first time in Family, Faith, Footy – and there are tears. For Piutau, born in New Zealand to Tongan immigrants, the experience was brutal – his decision in 2015 to walk away from the All Blacks in favour of a million-dollar-a-year offer from Ulster was seen by some as a betrayal.
“What we said to them was that this is your story,” says producer Adrian Stevanon. “This is not our story. And so if you want to say something, then you can say it. When we asked them, is there anything you don’t want to canvass, they both said no, we can talk about anything.”
Stevanon is of Samoan-Swiss heritage. He grew up in Te Awamutu and recalls watching Manu Samoa play King Country in Te Kūiti 30 years ago. “I was on the sideline, yelling at Fats [Peter Fatialofa] and Ofisa Tonu’u. I wanted to play for the Manu, but I don’t think I was ever good enough to even be considered.”
When rugby writer Gregor Paul came to Great Southern Television with the idea for a Pasifika rugby documentary, Stevanon was enthusiastic. He also soon began to feel the pressure.
“As a Samoan who works in the media, I know we don’t get too many opportunities to tell our stories in prime time. I didn’t want to get it wrong.”
It turned out to be vital, he thinks, that so many of the production team – director, cinematographer and sound operator included – also have Pacific heritage.
“That helped build a little bit of trust that there would be an understanding of the story and it wouldn’t get taken out of context.”
But Family, Faith, Footy is quite a lot more than a World Cup primer or a player confessional. Over two hour-long episodes, it’s also a social history and a bid to explain how commitment to family and the church shape Pasifika players. There are interviews with more than a dozen current or former players, including Sir Bryan Williams (for years the only Samoan most Pākehā New Zealanders could name), former Chiefs midfielder Bundee Aki, who will turn out for Ireland in the World Cup, and England’s Manu Tuilagi. There are visits to the Samoan, Tongan and Fijian camps, which are decidedly not as wealthy as their club stars.
For Stevanon, it’s “a chance for a mainstream audience to get a better understanding of who these players are, who their families are, what is important to our communities”.
As well as being a documentary that begged to be made, it’s one that has found its perfect time.
The Rugby World Cup starts on Saturday, September 9, New Zealand time, and runs until the end of October.
Family, Faith, Footy: A Pasifika Rugby Story TVNZ 1, Sunday, September 3, 8.30pm & TVNZ+
