Samoa treated as second-rate side, coach says i.stuff.co.nz SARAH HARVEY Parish took aim last night at rugby league officials whom he said had treated his side like second-class citizens during the Four Nations tournament with England, Australia and New Zealand. Parish, who has also been on the coaching team for the Cowboys and New South Wales, was seething at a press conference in the aftermath of his teams heartbreaking 14-12 loss to the Kiwis in Whangarei. He said it was frustrating Samoa had to be dictated to by the other three teams in the Four Nations competition. We get treated like second-class citizens; its about time they took a bit of notice. We knew what we were in for when we came into it. I think if rugby league wants to get a proper World Cup and not just have three teams, they need to do something to develop the second-tier nations. It is not the first time Parish has taken aim at those that control the game of rugby league. In May, Parish said he thought the current representative eligibility rules could cripple the competitiveness of smaller nations. At the time Parish was reacting to the case of Raiders star Anthony Milford who was forced to choose to play for the Queensland under-20s instead of for Samoa against Fiji. Under current Rugby League International Federation eligibility rules, because Milford played for the Maroons he would have been required to change his country of election from Australia and would be unable to change back for two years. Parish was at the helm for Samoas World Cup campaign, which Milford starred in. He witnessed the passion of the countrys supporters when the team held camps there in the leadup to the tournament. On Saturday, he said sides like Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and Papua New Guinea could survive and thrive - if their players were released to play for them. Making rules to protect a coachs job or protect a state or whatever they do, I dont think is in the interest of international football. Parish said he was gutted for his team. I just know that these guys worked really hard for the past three weeks and they have proved in the last two games they are not just here to make four [teams]. We had 35-odd guys in our squad and we all thought we would win last week and we all thought we would win [yesterday].
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 07:09:12 +0000