Samoa, a Rugby World Cup participant at every tournament since 1991, is facing the prospect of a four-year suspension from international rugby after its government withdrew recognition and funding from the national union.
The Samoan government announced on Wednesday night in Apia that it was pulling all support from Lakapi Samoa, citing what it called unresolved internal issues and division within the governing body. The announcement landed a day before Lakapi Samoa was due to meet a visiting World Rugby delegation.
According to a Samoa Observer report cited by Planet Rugby, World Rugby has since told the Samoan government it has until Friday to accept a proposed review of the decision. "Failure to accept the review or respond by the deadline could result in Samoa being suspended from international rugby for four years," the report stated.
Prime Minister La'aulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt delivered the news himself in a written statement.
"Following months of consultations, and space given to find an amicable resolution to the issues within Samoan rugby, the government has decided to withdraw its recognition and support of the national rugby union, Lakapi Samoa," the statement read.
The prime minister said the government remained committed to the sport and would decide which body to back. It would, he said, "see what Union it will give its support to in order to deliver the future development of the sport, to restore the professional standards and Samoa's rightful place in the global rugby arena".
"The government decision is to assist reset Samoan rugby and government has supported the major development pathways and financial assistance already in the pipeline to assist the future development of rugby in the country," he added.
This has been building since February, when La'auli said the sport in Samoa had been politicised. "We're coming in to clear out all the politicians inside our rugby union," he said at the time. "At this stage, our rugby is very impoverished... we are in the level that Samoa had never been before, because of what? Because of management."
In March he threatened to establish a rival governing body unless the Lakapi Samoa board resigned. That body, the Samoa Rugby and Football Union, has now been registered in Apia. Its launch was scheduled for this week and was postponed at short notice, with no new date announced.
The problem is jurisdictional rather than rhetorical. Lakapi Samoa remains the union recognised by World Rugby, and World Rugby's regulations treat government interference in a member union as grounds for suspension.
Lakapi Samoa board chairman Namulauulu Sami Leota, confirmed last month as Samoa's representative on the World Rugby Council, told the Samoa Observer that a rival union could spell disaster for the sport locally. He argued that Lakapi Samoa is the constitutionally established governing body and internationally recognised, and warned that any conflict over who administers the game carries risks that fall on players, clubs and officials — and on the international opportunities available to them.
Former prime minister Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi, himself a former Lakapi Samoa chairman, made the same point from the other side of the political divide, noting that Fiji Rugby was suspended three years ago in comparable circumstances.
World Rugby had told RNZ Pacific earlier that this was an internal matter for Samoa to resolve, with a spokesman saying it needed to be dealt with by stakeholders in Apia. Friday's deadline suggests that position has hardened.
Samoa are ranked 20th in the world and have qualified for every World Cup bar the inaugural 1987 tournament. A four-year ban would take them out of the 2027 tournament in Australia entirely.
