Pacific expansion to be a legacy of Four Nations

“It is like an enrichment playing against the three big nations in the rugby league spectrum and coming out with those competitive results. It is a reward for the hard work over a long time and people are very happy with the performance of the team” – Tagaloa Fa’afouina Su’a

The annual Pacific Test is set to be expanded to a double-header involving Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Papua New Guinea in a bid to build on the momentum created by this year’s Four Nations.

Samoa’s performance in the tournament has underlined the potential of the Pacific nations to provide genuine international competition for the big three of Australia, New Zealand and England, and officials want them to continue to play regular Tests.

With no Four Nations next season and doubts over its future after the 2016 tournament – in Britain, and including Scotland – it has been proposed that Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and PNG all play on the NRL’s stand-alone representative weekend that already features the Anzac Test and City-Country match.

For the past two seasons, the Pacific Test has been played at Penrith Stadium and this year featured Samoa beating Fiji 32-16 to claim a place in the

Four Nations, while Tonga beat Samoa 36-4 last year.

By expanding the concept to a double-header, the four biggest Pacific nations would be guaranteed at least one Test a year between World Cups for which their NRL players would be available.

That 180 NRL stars featured in last year’s World Cup shows the players support international football and want to represent their countries at Test level, and clubs have been supportive as most return as better players.

However, speculation the Rugby League International Federation favours the reintroduction of traditional Kangaroos and Lions tours at the expense of the Four Nations after the 2017 World Cup would leave players with little incentive to play for developing nations and clubs to release them.

The idea of staging a double-header is believed to have the backing of the NRL, which is committed to developing the game in the Pacific and will this week send a delegation led by head of football Todd Greenberg, Australian coach Tim Sheens and Parramatta star Semi Radradra to Fiji, where the game has been booming since the Bati qualified for the semi-finals of last year’s World Cup.

NRL chief executive Dave Smith, dual code superstar Sonny Bill Williams and Sheens undertook a similar trip to Samoa in August and Rugby League Samoa president Tagaloa Fa’afouina Su’a said the results in the Four Nations had furthered interest in the game.

The team was invited to meet Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi last Friday in Apia.

“Our people are very proud of the boys’ performance,” Su’a said.

“It is like an enrichment playing against the three big nations in the rugby league spectrum and coming out with those competitive results. It is a reward for the hard work over a long time and people are very happy with the performance of the team.

You need to meet twice or at least once a week. While you are seriously job hunting. Chances are you will be asked if you know someone with skills other than your own.

Now let’s go more deeply into the ways that Co-op membership can help you with finding your best lifetime skills, your motivated skills. Also enable you to practice interview strategies, and counsel you on your Job Power Report.

There is a great advantage to doing something with a group of people, fellow students, friends. Another is in knowing that others present are willing to help you if you have difficulty. There will surely be some misunderstanding but you are all mature enough to survive those, especially when you accept the basic rule which is: Each person has some kinds of excellence, and the purpose of the Co-op is to help each become aware of the skills and talents that combine to make that excellence a reality, with potential for improvement. Remember and remember well: cooperation is better than competition!

Yet another value of working with a group is the fact that sharing your self-knowledge, especially your achievements, not only increases your own awareness of their hidden meanings but also their reality, and also earns you the respect of the others for what you’ve got. Other benefits include the opportunity to practice what to say at interviews, and the suggestions from others, and how to overcome and cope with the variety of problems that arise when life goes merrily on.As you can see all are advantages, it is a excellent training ground, and a way to knock doors and meet people without telling them that you are looking for a job-( and they will tell you that they don’t have a job), fine, but you have the chance to expound your skills and talents and he/she will listen, since you are not “looking for a job”, so the meeting is not tense and nobody is nervous. So, try, make up your Job Cooperative, no less than 4, I promise you, you’ll never regret it.

*Orlando Huaman is a Job Counsellor and a freelance writer.huaman.orlando@yahoo.com

{googleAds}<script async src="http://www.samoaobserver.ws///pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>