England’s players will not donate part of their £22,000 match fee towards their Samoan opponents ahead of their Test at Twickenham on Saturday.
World Rugby disputed claims by the Samoan Union that the governing body was bankrupt.
Saracens prop Mako Vunipola is from a Tongan family and suggested that players donated at least £1,000 each and there was almost total agreement from the entire squad to do so.
Samoa’s players only receive a £650 match fee and a #HELPSAMOA campaign was launched to help the nation with their financial problems after declaring itself bankrupt a few weeks ago.
The Rugby Football Union announced on Wednesday they had planned a £75,000 donation towards the Samoan Rugby Union.
The England players backed this but stated that “it isn’t our place to get involved” following the disagreement between World Rugby and Samoa.
“As players we feel it isn’t our place to get involved in what appears to be a complex issue between the Samoan union and World Rugby,” said a spokesman for the England players.
“We are aware that the RFU has pledged to make a goodwill gesture to them on behalf of everyone involved with England Rugby and we support that decision.
“As players we look forward to playing Samoa this weekend as I am sure they are too. We won’t be commenting on this matter any further.”
The RFU also released a statement, saying: “The RFU will make a goodwill gesture payment to Samoa this week in addition to paying the costs we already pay under the World Rugby terms of participation for England to play Samoa.”
World Rugby insist that there has been a 19 percent increase of their funding for the Samoan Union and before the last World Cup cycle to 2015, some £17 million was invested.
Seilala Mapusua says England players donating would be a “band-aid solution”.
“Recent statements made by the chairman of the SRU questioning World Rugby’s funding package are inaccurate,” the world governing body said on Monday.
“World Rugby continues to be fully committed to assisting the SRU with its current financial, administrative and governance challenges.
“While the SRU’s failure to implement some jointly agreed high-performance initiatives in 2017 is a concern to World Rugby, it has resulted in a small amount of conditional investment being withheld.
“World Rugby can clarify that the union is not bankrupt.”
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