The Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) sacked former girls’s captain Laijipa Naulivou 4 days into her job as Director of Rugby after she stated the ladies’s recreation had a “homosexual downside”.
Naulivou, the primary captain of Fiji’s nationwide girls’s crew, instructed the Fiji Solar newspaper this week that she was in opposition to homosexual girls in rugby and stated they need to be excluded if the crew was “affected” by them.
“Those that performed with me know that I don’t condone being homosexual for girls in rugby,” the paper quoted her as saying.
“I all the time converse in opposition to it and I do know I am very unpopular in that space with those that practise it.”
Naulivou cited an previous report given to her by former Fiji take a look at participant Pio Bosco Tikoisuva, the FRU boss within the early-2000s, that stated lesbianism was an issue in European girls’s rugby.
“Retention of gamers and this homosexual downside had been the 2 essential issues that these European rugby nations had of their report and Fiji isn’t any exception in that space, too,” she stated.
FRU stated in an announcement it had terminated Naulivou’s place.
“Whereas she had tendered her resignation, the Board decided {that a} agency stance was vital to strengthen its dedication to upholding skilled requirements and safeguarding the integrity of Fiji Rugby,” the assertion stated.
“FRU categorically rejects any type of discrimination.”
The Wallaroos are set to play in opposition to Fijiana in Fiji on Might 3 forward of the Pacific 4 Collection matches in opposition to the Black Ferns USA and Canada in Newcastle, Canberra and Brisbane respectively.
These internationals all construct as much as the 2025 Rugby World Cup in England, with the Wallaroos in Pool A alongside England, USA and Samoa.
Fijiana are in Pool B alongside Wales, Scotland and Canada.
Reuters/ABC
