Give Samoan rugby some respect

Believe there are two kiwidaves and I am the one you don't agree with. Been away for six weeks and now I find this. Time to think up a new moniker.

Fiji's record is far better than Samoa's. Samoa has had slightly better recent results but across the world they have more " resources and opportunities at its disposal" as more of them play in NZ and Europe.

They have done well.

I know right.

Just my estimate. I didn't say until 20 years are up, I meant they might achieve this within the next 20 years. Yes if they had all of those things they will have success "overnight" just like many other countries but I was speaking only in terms of beating the All Blacks and to a smaller degree consistent wins against the "big boys" of world rugby. Even with the "right management, right coach, right players" that still wouldn't be enough to beat the All Blacks until all of the players can buy into the same collective game plan with consistency, accuracy and focus for the full 80 minutes which the Island teams traditionally find it hard to do. Putting a bunch of "individuals" on the paddock and expecting them to consistently beat "teams" if asking for a lot. As they say "a champion team always beats a team of champions". If you disagree that's fine, each to their own but I suspect I'm being quite accurate in my assessment.

Samoa the best rugby country in the world pound for pound. Consider all the legendary Samoans who turned out for the kiwis, and the likes of Manusamoa Tuilagi turning out for England and becoming the greatest current European centre. They've got so many forces working against them but are still an extremely competitive team even without much exposure to the other premier rugby nations.

Best Samoan team 2012 with all available Samoans pledging loyalty to Samoa: 15) Mils Muliana just beats Paul Williams 14) Tuilagi senior 13)MA nonu 12)SBW 11) Tuilagi Junior put out on wing 10) Tusi Pisi 9)Khan Fhoutali 8) Kane Thompson/joe tekori 7)M Fasevalu 6)Jerome Kaino/ jerry collins 5) 4) 3)Census johnson 2)Mo shwalger/kev melamu 1)Anthony perinese/ or john afoa/or Neema Tialata What a team: And probably many mor eplayers i havent heard of to make reserves bench

Or the warafricans jeznez. Vickerman, Pocock.

KD is a Kiwi living in Melbourne - doesn't get to talk about rugby down there as much as he'd like so chats to us on here.

ha ha - no to Kepu, Timani, Timani, Polota-Nau, Palu, Pakalani..... When are we renaming my side the Waratongans?

love your work with the Canterbury Crusaders, Richie, great to see an All Black posting here under his real name.

so the kiwis obviously dont give France respect, extreme arrogance, so much crying from NZ when they were denied by the superior French teams

I agree. What do you say terry tacit to the sceptics who say Samoa 15 New Zealanders out of 30 in there squad. I simply say well look at all the samoans we get poached or lose to other teams eg Manu Tuilagi . So it evens itself out.

with the meager resources and opportunities at its disposal, Manu Samoa - not the All Blacks - is the greatest rugby team in the world..

the all blacks, wallabies and springboks will always have better teams because they have 5 professional franchises each to select from..that's at least ten pro flyhalves, 10 pro halfbacks, 10 number eights, etc..samoa has none..let's not overlook the obvious..let's not delude ourselves for a minute that samoa has the same benefits, play on the same playing field as nz, australia and south africa..samoa on occassion slugs beyond its weight simply because of fierce pride and passion for their country..

Tautoko some excellent points, a very good comment. That Samoa 2011 team for the RWC was a truly special team. It had a spirit that is hard to describe, kinda similar to the golden generation of socceroos in 2006 world cup . They had such good team spirit, took on the world, firmly believed they could win the world cup that full time professional team of manu samoa in 2011. -And tournament rugby and state of origin , and things like that, as well are different format to regular season week to week grind and that Samoan 2011 squad was perfect type of players suited to tournament style rugby . -The people of Samoa too knew it was special Tautoko and the whole country plus all the samoans in Australia and NZ, were right behind them, Samoa and Tonga were everybody's 2nd favourite team to support at the world cup. -And the people knew they were in with a chance to win that they via the telethon and donations gave the team any spare money they had, which is a big deal as samoa is not a rich nation and a small one. -But sadly so many bad forces conspired to hurt Samoa RWC campaign it has been well covered . -The iRB schedule -and worst of all some of the terrible administrators that exist in samoan rugby , a lot of that money went missing or unaccounted for -and the poor management and shamoblic training camps were all over the place sadly -the players and fans wanted it badly but they were screwed at all angles by people they were suppose to trust which was so sad -I watched a doco on it by TVNZ and with Mo Schwarger being interviewed. And it was a disgrace and shambolic what that Samoan playing squad had to put up with. -I hope come rugby world cup 2015 the wounds have healed and the public in Samoa get behind the team again i fear it may not happen as they have been bruised badly the people of Samoa but there is hope.

That Loss to Samoa was a Wake up call for you fellas... in the short term IMO.. With that loss, you guys went on to win the 3N title.. In almost a decade if i remember correctly.

Why 20 years? All it takes is the right people. Right management, right coach, right players ... that would change things overnight!!

Well the way the Wallabies were described in the kiwi press last year, and their general treatment by the public in New Zealand was far worse. Nonetheless, I doubt 'Kiwi Dave' considered writing a 'show the Wallabies some respect' article on a New Zealand sports blog.