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Be Happy: The Tongans are in the black, claims the IRB
Tonga is reported to have claimed that the International Rugby Board (IRB) has come up short on promised funds - but the governing body has rejected the accusation, insisting that all teams are funded equally.
Tui Uata, vice-president of the Tongan Rugby Union, claims that Tonga have received only a fraction of what was originally offered by the IRB.
"I understand from our high performance officer that we have not had £110,000 [$223,000] of the £150,000 [$304,000] we are due," he said.
But Greg Thomas, the IRB's head of communications, insists that all funding is running according to schedule.
"The IRB has provided the Tongan RFU with £100,000 of the scheduled £150,000, as it has with all teams, in accordance with the Participation Agreement.
"All 20 teams at Rugby World Cup 2007 receive £150,000 as a contribution to their participation.
"It is paid in installments and the last payment is to be paid to all 20 teams at the completion of the tournament.
"This includes Tonga who have not been treated any differently to the other teams.
"Furthermore all travel, accommodation, food, etc is provided for the teams at the tournament."
Thomas added: "The IRB has provided an additional £30,000 emergency payment to assist with the TRFU's tournament costs
"The IRB is very pleased how the developing nations have played at RWC 2007 and the strategic investment funding has only been in place for two years."
He said that the Tonga Rugby Union had received "close to £1 million pounds" through the IRB strategic investment programme.
Thomas went on to say: "These countries are also excited about their progress and naturally would like even more assistance moving forward.
"The IRB understands this but there are certain ways to ask for this assistance and it has been disappointing how certain people are ignoring the substantial funding the IRB has made.
"Next year the IRB will have additional money to invest following RWC 2007 and after reviewing the £30 million strategic investment for the period 2005-2008 it will decide how to invest this funding."
