Mental health, finances a focus for Pacific rugby initiative

Transcript

The importance of off-field support for Pacific Island rugby players is underlined in a new initiative including career, financial and mental health education.

More than 600 Pacific Island players currently play professional rugby across the world, and the new Player Personal Development Programme aims to give these players greater support.

The Pacific Island Players Association General Manager, Josh Blackie, said the initiative is primarily around the holistic support of players off the field.

He told Leilani Momoisea financial education is an important part of this.

JOSH BLACKIE: What we're seeing is young, talented athletes - one day they're in a village environment and the next day they're being thrust into an international rugby environment in places like Paris, London, Tokyo. I guess having to cope with the expectations and other issues around being a professional rugby player is sometimes a bit overwhelming. Some guys do it really well, but I guess the main driver for us is making sure that there is an avenue of support and education for these guys so that we can frontload a lot of that before they leave the island.

LEILANI MOMOISEA: And is it also looking at life after rugby as well, making sure that they have skills that they can apply to the world once their careers are over?

JB: Yeah, certainly, what we've learnt is that it's a process that has to start before players become professional. And having the right education and planning around long term planning around life outside of rugby is such an important thing because the guys that we see that are quite successful as we transition are the guys who have planned well and have got options when they retire. The guys who find it a bit more difficult are they guys who probably haven't had a lot of that support and have struggled with a number of issues when they transition out of playing back into normal sort of life, so to speak.

LM: What are those issues?

JB: It's a whole raft of things. We mentioned financial issues, guys earn a decent salary or wage in a lot of cases playing professionally, and coming back into life post-rugby with a family to support or mortgages to pay, there's some adjustments to make there. We look at the whole mental health side of things and we're learning every day as other people are, not just rugby, in world sport, where professional athletes from a very young age have grown up and their whole identity has been around their sporting prowess, and how they operate in their environments is around that identity. I guess having the support around them as they go through their career to build other aspects of their life, and other things that are good for healthy living, are important, so the more we can promote that the better off the guys are when we finish up. We're not hiding away from the fact that no matter how prepared guys are, that mental health space is a difficult one. It's something a lot of guys struggle with and it is a broad spectrum of issues so it's just having more awareness of and ability for the guys to seek support when they need it.

LM: Right, so making sure they're well round people, not just players.

JB: Yeah, definitely. That all ties in together with how they plan their life off the field, whether it's education or work experience or just being connected with something they enjoy doing outside of rugby is important for their development. We've probably learnt along the way in other international environments that it's such a crucial factor to invest in if you want to see these young men who are very talented in what they do go on and be successful men in their lives outside of rugby as well.

$US455,000 is being invested into the programme in Fiji, which is to be piloted for three years.

There will be a full time personal development manager based in Fiji who will work across the various elite teams in Fiji rugby, including the men and women's Sevens teams, the Flying Fijians, Fijian Warriors and the under 20s team.

Additional funds will be allocated later in the year to run programmes in Samoa and Tonga.

The programmes will provide support in five key development areas which include career and education, financial, family and culture and professional rugby and personal development.

The funding comes from the support of the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, World Rugby, Digicel, the NZ Rugby Players Association and Massey University.