France v Tonga

1 October (Wellington) The three Pacific nations face huge battles on the rugby pitch this weekend to achieve some mighty upsets that would enable any of them to get to the quarterfinals – rather like the battles they face on the world stage. Size and isolation count against them. In both rugby and social equality, France places above Tonga. The ...

Post-Match: Fiji v Samoa

25 September (Auckland) Fiji sent a Hail Mary Pass by Britain Guest blog from Fr Denis O’Hagan, a Marist priest and one of the editors of the online e-newsletters CathNews New Zealand and CathNews Pacific. I was delighted that Samoa beat Fiji on Sunday, because Samoa was my home for seven years. (Though I was on Fiji’s side when the ...

It’s a man’s game – in the Pacific

Further to yesterday’s blog on New Zealand’s ranking – the Pacifica nations also probably rank higher than they should in our indicative rankings – we haven’t factored in gender inequality properly yet. The latest Human Development Report 2010 had no figures for the Gender Inequality Index for Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. Presumably ...