FRU chairman: Pay must be pegged to performance

The Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) board of directors is looking at carrying out an independent internal review once they receive the tour report.

This was confirmed to SUNsports yesterday by FRU board chairman John Sanday, who indicated that several names have been put forward, but management would work on it and make a decision.

Speaking from London, the former Flying Fijians No. 8 said the last three weeks had enabled them to have a close-up view of the challenges and gaps.

“It is until you take the boat out into the open sea that you notice the leaks that require patching,” Sanday said.

“So it was with what we experienced in the last three weeks, we now have a good handle on the gaps.”

One of the challenges faced was when players asked for an increase in their allowance.

“I won’t call it a revolt, but a request was made for player allowance to be increased to $1000 per day,” he said.

“When I was briefed, I was quite shocked as that was equivalent to a month’s pay for an ordinary worker in Fiji, which they wanted to be paid for each day they were in camp.

“In the end, a negotiated amount was agreed to, a slight increase from the $500 per day amount.”

Sanday alluded that during the jersey presentation before the Wales Test match, he had made it clear to the players that they would reward them if they performed and qualified for the play-offs.

“We are a business and we have to run as a business. What company or corporation pays their employees first before they deliver the results?” Sanday said.

The team revolt during the Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2023 and, again, with this request, Sanday said, showed that a sense of entitlement may be existing in the team culture.

“We have to start pegging payment to performance and productivity gains. In line with this, we have an ageing team of players. When we compare this to the opposing teams we are playing, we notice that they have a much younger average age profile, which probably explains the energy gap between the two teams. So we have to have a holistic review. We are Tier 1 now and we need to benchmark ourselves against the top Tier 1 teams,” he added.