FORU AGM a success 08 May, 2012

Fijiana coach and FORU Women's Development Officer Elenoa Kunatuba and FRU CEO Manasa Baravilala pose infront of the William Webb Ellis Trophy during a break in last week's FORU AGM in the Cook Islands.

The Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions (FORU) Annual General Meeting in the Cook Islands last week has been hailed a success for smaller Pacific islands that rely on the IRB for funding to lift the standard of rugby in their respective nations. 

This funding helps small island nations through the employment and development of high performance coaches, match officials and team officials. It also assists in developing a higher knowledge of sports science through a structured intensive rugby specific learning program. 

Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) chief executive officer Manasa Baravilala attended the AGM and was pleased with the outcome. 

“This is my first time as FRU’s CEO to attend and I was pleased to learn a lot, in terms of competition structure, strategic planning and how Fiji can source funds through FASANOC for the Olympics in 2016 for rugby - especially women’s rugby”. 

Baravilala revealed the major ssue of concern at the FORU AGM was that of adequate and strategic funding - an issue common to all FORU nations. 

"No matter how big, or small, a nation you are funding is always going to be an issue particularly in a professional sport where players are earning six figure salaries," Baravilala said.

Harry Schuster of Samoa was re-elected unopposed to the post of President of FORU and will be FORU’s representative to the IRB council for the next four years. Likewise, Andy Conway of Australia returned to the post of Treasurer. Nick Brown of New Zealand was elected as Secretary, replacing countryman Stephen Cottrell. The remaining two executive positions were taken up by Richard Sapias of Papua New Guinea and Charles Tauziet of Tahiti.