Former Fiji Water Flying Fijians outside back, Semi Radradra has revealed that they had 3 players’ strikes against the Fiji Rugby Union at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France which caused them to lose 3 games in the tournament just because of the delay in their pay.
Radradra revealed this during a live interview with Lesi Vanuavou.
Radradra says the first strike was before the game against Wales and the second strike was before the game against Portugal with the third one before the game against England.
He says the losses against Wales, Portugal and England were because of the players being mentally distracted with such issues.
He adds they had these strikes because some of the players were not paid for at least 3 weeks while some were not fully paid for weeks.
Former Flying Fijians captain Waisea Nayacalevu says the FRU is asking for evidence of his allegations against them but they themselves were breaching the contracts they have signed with the players after delaying their pay.
Nayacalevu says if the FRU had fulfilled the promises they made to the players, Fiji would have done wonders at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
Nayacalevu says on the international level, players would be fully focused on the game ahead of them and not their pay if the FRU had stayed true to what they promised.
He adds it was better off if FRU did not make any promises that they could not fulfil.
Former Flying Fijians utility Lepani Botia says there should be a way that things need to be done in regards to paying the players in terms of what they have sacrificed for the team.
He says FRU cannot expect players to perform to the best of their ability when they are not paying the players well which affects the players’ mental preparation heading into a match.
Botia says players have their families that rely on them to provide for them from what they are earning as everything nowadays is all about the money.
He says when FRU promised them their payout, the players were all focused on giving their best performance to get awarded what they were promised and when the promise was not fulfilled, the players were questioning the captain along with some senior players as well as the manager and the former coach Simon Raiwalui.
Botia says they had to deal with young players coming to them asking them when will the FRU pay them the promised bonus.
He says he has been playing for Fiji for the past 10 years, and these alleged corrupt practices have always been there.
Botia adds they are speaking out for the betterment of the players’ welfare especially when these players leaving behind the roles they have to play at home, to go out and represent the country only to be treated inappropriately, especially with their pay.
He says they have raised these issues many times, especially with their pay, but nothing has been done.
Former captain, Waisea Nayacalevu along with former reps Lepani Botia and Semi Radradra have revealed that former coach Simon Raiwalui and other senior players in the squad to the 2023 Rugby World Cup had to fork out money from their own pockets to share with the local players after their game against Georgia.
Nayacalevu, Botia and Radradra highlighted that they had to use their own money as their pay was delayed.
The players say they had to buy the meals for the local players as well.
We have sent questions to FRU’s Interim Chair, Peter Mazey.
On issues that have been raised by Waisea Nayacalevu and other players regarding payments, Mazey says the Trustees have engaged an independent Accounting Auditor to review all payments.
Former Fiji Water Flying Fijians skipper Waisea Nayacalevu along with former reps Lepani Botia and Semi Radradra have revealed that former coach Simon Raiwalui and other senior players in the squad to the 2023 Rugby World Cup had to fork out money from their own pockets to share with the local players after their game against Georgia.
During a live interview with a Lesi Vanuavou, Nayacalevu, Botia and Radradra highlighted that they had to use their own money as their pay was delayed.
The players say they had to buy the meals for the local players as well.
Nayacalevu says this has been an ongoing issue for years where the FRU promises players to pay them a certain amount of money or bonuses after tournaments but they fail to see their promises through.
He says this should not be happening at the international level.
Semi Radradra has also revealed that most of the players that went for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Tokyo have not been fully paid to date.
Radradra says they were promised that they will be paid half of the salary before they left for Tokyo and will receive the remainder of their salary when they come back from Tokyo.
He says this is why they fought hard for the pay to be fully paid to the players before the 2023 RWC quarter final match against England to prevent the same incident that happened in 2019.
We are awaiting a response from Interim Chair of the Fiji Rugby Union, Peter Mazey.
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