The National’s Sport cover for the Thursday, December 4 issue, featuring the start to Dubai Rugby Sevens today with the beginning of the amateur events.
In the build-up coverage to the weekend, Paul Radley profiles the curious exodus of Fijian rugby players to Sri Lanka, a lesser rugby nation but one that which, crucially, can offer better money.
The reality, he writes, is:
“Sri Lanka can lay claim to being one of Asia’s leading rugby nations, after Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.
“But they cannot match Fiji’s contribution to the sport on a global scale.
“The first genuine icon of rugby sevens, Waisale Serevi, says his compatriots have every right to put their livelihood ahead of national duty.
“‘We don’t have a lot of sponsors in Fiji and that is why a lot of players have gone to Sri Lanka, where there is not a lot of rugby’, Serevi said.
“‘Financially, it is much better for them, because it is much quicker and easier for them to get out of Fiji’.”
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