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England vs Samoa

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Shelts89

Shelts89

Tom Lawton (22)
Samoa have been on an upward curve over the last few years as I see it, but I can't really see us losing this one. Worst case is we do what Wales did with Fiji and make bloody hard work of it. We need to trial a few changes, and if they go well then we may even see some those changes kept against Aus.

I'd go for;
1. Mullan
2. Webber
3. Wilson
4. Attwood
5. Lawes
6. Haskell
7. Robshaw
8. Morgan
9. Youngs
10. Ford
11. May
12. Eastmond
13. Burrell
14. Roko
15. Foden/Watson

16. Hartley
17. Marler
18. Brookes
19. Kruis
20. Vunipola
21. Care
22. Foden/Watson
23. Yarde

Running a big risk with no back up 10, but hey.... I am really f*cking fed up with Farrell
 
Omar Comin'

Omar Comin'

Chilla Wilson (44)
Samoa were excellent a couple of years ago but seem to have gone off the boil a little. In 2012 they beat Wales at the Millenium stadium and got within 8 points of France. I don't think the current side is at that level. Losing to Italy was a surprise as they've regularly beaten them in the recent past, and they only scraped by Canada. To be fair, the off field issues are probably having an impact.

I think England will probably win by 20-30 points, but hope I'm wrong!
 
Shelts89

Shelts89

Tom Lawton (22)
I haven't heard about these domestic issues for Samoa, though I did hear somerhi about them not striking which baffles me. Could anyone elaborate?

And a win by 20-30 points certainly wouldn't be bad!
 
Bardon

Bardon

Peter Fenwicke (45)
Shelts89 said:
I haven't heard about these domestic issues for Samoa, though I did hear somerhi about them not striking which baffles me. Could anyone elaborate?

And a win by 20-30 points certainly wouldn't be bad!
Click to expand...

The Samoan RU is rotten to the core. Players don't get paid or don't get paid the amount they were promised. They have to pay for their own expenses such as flights not knowing if they'll be reimbursed. Equipment meant for the players is stolen by officials who sell it on.

Only a fraction of the money that goes into the Union actually goes to benefit the game and the players. The rest of it disappears into a black hole of corruption. Some of the money is from the IRB and some donated by people from Samoa who can't really afford it but do it because of their love of the game.

On top of that you have Malielegaoi who is prime minister and chairman of SRU telling the players they can f*k-off there's plenty more where you came from.

The players called off the strike having talked to the IRB so they must have received some assurances. I just hope the IRB can deliver on those assurances as it's about time the top table of RU started looking after teams like Samoa. The shit that's going on there wouldn't be tolerated in any Tier 1 nation and it shouldn't be allowed to happen at any level of the game imo.
 
Tangawizi

Tangawizi

Peter Fenwicke (45)
I think the issues in Samoan rugby will be thrust into the spotlight a lot more next year when the AB's head to Apia. As for this week, England by around 20.

Just bit of a shame that Manusamoa Tuilagi isn't fit to play against Manu Samoa...
 
Shelts89

Shelts89

Tom Lawton (22)
Ah ok, well it sounds like the players have every right to be aggrieved. Hopefully this stuff gets sorted out sooner rather than later!
 
Omar Comin'

Omar Comin'

Chilla Wilson (44)
Samoa could be a really strong team if they had a better union and more opportunity from SANZAR in particular. It wasn't that long ago they kicked the Wallabies arse at Homebush.

Maybe Samoan rugby should come under the stewardship of the NZRU or something.
 
Shelts89

Shelts89

Tom Lawton (22)
Surely they would be better of fixing the Samoan RU. Under the NZRU they would also be second dog to the interests of NZ.

Anyway here is the initial 28 England squad.

England Squad

Loose-head props
Joe Marler (Harlequins)
Matt Mullan (Wasps)
Tight-head props
Kieran Brookes (Newcastle Falcons)
David Wilson (Bath Rugby)
Hookers
Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
Rob Webber (Bath Rugby)
Locks
Dave Attwood (Bath Rugby)
George Kruis (Saracens)
Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints)
Back rows Calum Clark (Northampton Saints)
James Haskell (Wasps)
Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby)
Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, captain)
Billy Vunipola (Saracens)
Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)
Scrum halves
Danny Care (Harlequins)
Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers)
Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens)
Outside backs
Brad Barritt (Saracens)
Luther Burrell (Northampton Saints)
Kyle Eastmond (Bath Rugby)
Owen Farrell (Saracens)
George Ford (Bath Rugby)
Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester Rugby)
Back threes
Mike Brown (Harlequins)
Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby)
Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby)
Marland Yarde (Harlequins)

Eastmond is a maybe apparently due to concussion, and Roko is still injured.
 
Omar Comin'

Omar Comin'

Chilla Wilson (44)
Shelts89 said:
Surely they would be better of fixing the Samoan RU. Under the NZRU they would also be second dog to the interests of NZ.
Click to expand...

Well I don't mean they should disband the SRU and think they should stay relatively autonomous, but perhaps if they came under the NZRU umbrella there'd be some improvement in governance and management. The NZRU could use Samoa to further develop coaches and support staff etc, and they'd give Manu Samoa more clout commercially. Perhaps we'd even see Samoa added to the Rugby Championship.

I'm just thinking out loud. This isn't anything at all likely to happen.
 
Shelts89

Shelts89

Tom Lawton (22)
Fair enough. i think the Pacific Islands teams would do well to focus on getting there best players available for their tournament between themselves and Japan. That competition is still on right?

As I remember it it suffered from Samoa, Fiji and Tonga not having access to any of their European or S15 players.
 
Omar Comin'

Omar Comin'

Chilla Wilson (44)
They play in the Pacific Nations Cup tournament in June along with Fiji, Tonga, Japan, USA and Canada. It's gone through many different formats and given the June international window is fairly short it's always sort of rushed together. The teams (other than Japan) don't have their professional players available for every match as it pushes the boundaries of the window. And the clubs clearly put pressure on players not to play. The players then have a choice of representing their country for no money or having an off-season and pleasing their employers.

Samoa have had better results than Argentina for the past few years. And Fiji at full strength aren't far behind either. On merit, if Argentina are in it then at least Samoa should be as well. And if they were the Samoans would benefit from greater commercial opportunities and the players would earn more money. But it won't happen because Samoa doesn't bring a new TV market to the table. It's a pity that's what it comes down to. The union being a basket case wouldn't help them either!
 
Shelts89

Shelts89

Tom Lawton (22)
If you could ensure that the top level players for those countries were available then it wouldn't be too bad a tournament. Or get more of the big nations touring to those sides as well.

England team has been announced

1. Marler
2. Webber
3. Wilson
4. Attwood
5. Lawes
6. Haskell
7. Robshaw
8. Morgan

9. Youngs
10. Ford
11. May
12. Farrell
13. Barritt
14. Watson
15. Brown

16. Hartley
17. Mullan
18. Brookes
19. Kruis
20. Wood
21. Wigglesworth
22.Twelvetrees
23. Yarde

Overall I am really happy with the pack. Infact its not a bad starting team. With the exception of having the least dynamic centre pairing in history. Being a winger will be depressing. Not sure how bad Farrell has to be to be dropped. Benefits of daddy being on the coaching team I suppose.
 
Dismal Pillock

Dismal Pillock

Michael Lynagh (62)
Not easy to track this man down via google image search.​
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Virtually nothing comes up.​
​
But here he is, the SRU "Treasurer":​
​
​
181607_103630919716302_634600_n.jpg
 
Dctarget

Dctarget

Tim Horan (67)
The Prime Minister of Samoa is a hilarious individual... Met him last year in Easter and had an interesting chat.

His comments on democracy went something like this: "Democracy is good for those in power, shit for those who aren't in power. Fortunately I've been PM for 16 years. So it's pretty bloody great".

Jovial large man, can't say much about his leadership though.
 
Ruggo

Ruggo

Mark Ella (57)
The match between these two at the 2003 RWC still ranks as one of the best matches I have seen.
 
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