Samoan community backs RWC player facing IRB wrath
Sat, 15 Oct 2011 8:38a.m.
Eliota Fuimaono Sapolu is due to attend an IRB hearing this morning
Auckland's Samoan community is standing beside a controversial rugby player set to face the wrath of the IRB this morning.
Thirty-year-old centre Eliota Sapolu has been suspended from all rugby, pending the result of today's judicial hearing, after posting tweets claiming the IRB is racist and biased.
A march - intended as a show of Samoan unity against the IRB's treatment of the tier two world cup nations - will converge on the Vero Centre in downtown Auckland in the next hour.
Organiser Efeso Collins says the community is right behind Sapolu.
“Even as a community we acknowledge that there were extreme examples used, but we’re grateful because it was those extreme examples that possibly got us the media attention and the IRB attention that we so desperately need.”
Eliota Sapolu likened the IRB's scheduling of Samoa's pool matches to the holocaust.
RadioLIVE