The scheduling row that has soured the World Cup took on a new dimension

on Tuesday with a Samoan player accusing the International Rugby Board

of exploitation akin to “slavery” and “apartheid”.

Eliota Sapolu

Fuimaono, a centre who plays his club rugby for Gloucester in England

used his Twitter account to accuse the sport’s ruling body of “unfair

treatment” following Samoa’s 17-10 loss to Wales.

Sapolu Fuimaono

pointed out that the clash in Hamilton on Sunday was Samoa’s second

game in four days, while Wales had enjoyed a week off beforehand.

He called this exploitation and said Samoa’s treatment was “like slavery, like the holocaust, like apartheid”.

The IRB defended its scheduling and said the Twitter tirade was disappointing.

“We are aware of the comments and find the context of them disappointing,” an IRB spokesman said.

Samoa team officials are understood to be meeting with the IRB later on Tuesday to discuss the issue.

The

Welsh win over Samoa means they are now in pole position to take the

second qualifying position from the tough Pool D behind defending

champions South Africa.

Several of the “Tier Two” nations, like

Canada, Georgia and Namibia, have also complained about the scheduling

and in particular the turnaround times between games, which they say

discriminates against them.

The top teams from the Six Nations

and Tri Nations tournaments in general have been accorded more time to

recover between matches.

After a rest day on Monday, World Cup

action was set to resume with Italy looking for the maximum five points

from their clash with new boys Russia in Nelson later on Tuesday.

The

Italians collapsed in the second half of their opener against Australia

after a promising start and Ireland’s upset win over the Wallabies has

made it all the more difficult for them to reach the quarter-finals for

the first time.

France and South Africa both unveiled their teams

for their third pool games and the French sprung a mighty surprise by

selecting scrum-half Morgan Parra at fly-half in the starting XV to take

on the All Blacks at Eden Park on Saturday.

He pulls on the

No.10 shirt instead of Francois Trinh-Duc, who played in the opening

wins against Japan and Canada, but who failed to impress coach Marc

Lievremont in either game.

“I think that Francois Trinh-Duc,

after two matches when he was not at his best, pays the price and on the

other hand Morgan (Parra) has been quite effective,” the coach said.

The

Springboks handed a recall to winger Bryan Habana in the side to take

on southern African neighbours Namibia in Auckland on Thursday.

He was one of five changes from the side that impressed hugely in a 49-3 win over Fiji in Wellington last Saturday.

Habana,

who has recovered from a knee injury, will have another opportunity to

claim the all-time Springbok try-scoring record he currently shares with

Joost van der Westhuizen on 38 tries.

“Our biggest challenge is to manage our players at the moment,” coach Pieter de Villiers said.

“We’ve had two bruising encounters and from those John (Smit) is the only one still standing.”