It’s been a great week for us,” Toa Samoa Team Manager, Andrew Farrar, said. “We’ve now received the country’s blessings, we’ve experienced the culture and we are going back to Australia with much appreciation about what we are playing for, and who
we are representing.”
The Head of State, His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi, has given his blessing to the Toa Samoa Rugby league team, days away from the opening of the Four Nations Tournament.
His Highness and Masiofo, Her Highness Filifilia, met the team at Tuaefu before they flew to Australia.
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During the meeting, His Highness encouraged the players to be brave and never forget that more than 180,000 Samoans in Samoa, and thousands more around the world are praying for them.
He urged them to play as a team and give it their all.
The tournament, which begins this weekend, is a historical occasion for Samoa.
It is the first time Toa Samoa has qualified for the Four Nations.
But it is a mountain of a hill for the Toa boys to climb. The tournament only involves the best teams in the world.
Samoa will play England this weekend, followed by New Zealand and the defending world champions, Australia.
As part of their preparations, coach Matt Parish and the team filled with NRL stars came to Samoa to get the blessings of the country.
They camped out at the Return to Paradise Resort, Lefaga, where they trained at some of the local primary schools, promoting rugby league in the process.
Speaking to the Samoa Observer, Manager, Andrew Farrar said the team is confident knowing that Samoa is fully behind them.
“It’s been a great week for us,” he said. “We’ve now received the country’s blessings, we’ve experienced the culture and we are going back to Australia with a bit more appreciation about what we are playing for and who we are representing.”
With England up first, Farrar again conceded that Samoa has a mountain of work to do.
“It’s a big challenge ahead and for us to do well, we have to do a lot of work,” he said.
“The team is well prepared. We’ve running through the combinations and working on things we wanted to improve on so we have high hopes.” On the other hand, Farrar said Toa Samoa needs more regular test matches.
“It’s the same everywhere else, we need more regular competition and we need good games to develop our players. Obviously with international matches, it is a different level than NRL so we need more time together.”
Toa Samoa is taking a 23-man squad to the tournament. The Toa Samoa squad: Leeson Ah Mau (St George Illawarra Dragons), David Fa’alogo (Newcastle Knights), Pita Godinet (Wakefield Trinity Wildcats), Tim Lafai (Canterbury-Bankstown
Bulldogs), Joey Leilua (Newcastle Knights), Isaac Liu (Sydney Roosters), DunamisLui (Manly Sea Eagles), Penani Manumalealii (Cronulla Sharks), MoseMasoe (St Helens), Peter Mata’utia (St George Illawarra Dragons), Reni Maitua
(Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs), Tautau Moga (North Queensland Cowboys), Dominique Peyroux (New Zealand Warriors), Frank Pritchard (Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs), Ben Roberts (Melbourne Storm), Tim Simona (Wests Tigers),
Michael Sio (New Zealand Warriors), Kyle Stanley (St George Illawarra Dragons), Sauaso Sue (Wests Tigers), Sam Tagataese (Cronulla Sharks), Daniel Vidot (Brisbane Broncos), Antonio Winterstein (North Queensland Cowboys), Josh
McGuire (Brisbane Broncos)
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