Why aren't Samoa in the Rugby Championship?

Durrr.... another great statistic man... played all your rugby on the computer did you ?????? Grew your Polynesian knowledge in a library eh? Your stats don't show the big numbers of Pasifika out on the domains and parks involved in rugby week in, week out. Use to be just south Auckland and Porirua, but now spread all over. Rape and pillage is a term used in rugby circles for almost 30 when describing how offical rugbydom in Australia and NZ treated our Polynesian cousins. But it goes back further to the Piggy Muldoon era and the Dawn Raids, deciding to get rid of the cheap labour we imported in the 1960s-1970s in the early '80s. It grew legs when IRB nations in the northern hemisphere started dividing up our victorious All Black teams into Pasifika nations in order to divid our unity. It came out around the time when rugby critics back home were becoming worried about "the browning of the All Blacks". Pasifika greats such as Bryan Williams & Pam Lam hit back in their own way - remember ??? Australia bore some heat for the rape and pillaging of pasifika too. Aussie know that they have their future rugby stars based in the Polynesian capital, Western Sydney, all they need do is wait for the third generation Aussie born pasifika to want to play for Australia and not their Island homeland. As for the so called 50 year celebrations in June. The less said the better about the way we looked after our Samoan cousins at the time when they looked to us as their protectors more than 50 years ago - read up about it. Stats can say what ever you want them to say - but rape and pillage is here to stay and rightfully so. The NZRU has responded positively to those queries from its favourite Polynesian sons who pulled on the black jersey, and our and their rugby have been the benefactors - or do your stats say something different???

Ra, when do you finish primary school?

Bring back the PIRA team!!!

Hey mania, sole man, I had no idea about that NZ Samoans tour in the 90s ... but that's exactly the same time I had relocated here to Sydney. Sounds like an awesome lineup with those big names you mentioned. But like yourself, I wonder why that concept was scrapped? I suppose that was how the Pacific Islands format subsequently came along. And even that was scrapped too.

I had an idea recently, maybe we should introduce a team in Super Rugby from Samoa / Fiji and Tonga - like a combined pacific islands team. The team could have 3 'home' grounds, 1 being in each major city perhaps Apia, Suva etc! It would draw massive crowds in Australia and New Zealand, given the Islander populations living in each country, but would also draw big crowds in each country for home games. The hurdle is often stated as a lack of financial resources and that may be correct however spreading the load around the countries means that fans are not financially crippled as they only attend a third of the home games. It goes some way to increasing Rugby's footprint in each country and gives something 'financial' back to the islands! Despite only small populations, these countries produce arguably the best Rugby players (see the list of AB's and Wallabies with heritage) and that needs to be recognised. I think introduction into the RC is maybe a bridge to far at the moment but inclusion into Super Rugby is the way to go and would alleviate that financial gap over time I believe!!

lol mania makes sense, I think all these development stuff will make samoa get stronger easily have the ability yot be ranked no 1 in the world. The new timezone changes apparently will help the Samoa economy a lot too.

lol johnno - i agree. i'm not the one saying NZRFU shold do more for samoan rugby. the way i see it its up to our people to do it for the next generation instead of expecting NZ or the IRB to do it for us.

I agree mania just felt like stirring the pot. Samoa though is getting treated heaps better than the iRB. i wont rant all my reasons why, but anyone who complains about getting a test vs the French in Paris in from of 75,000-80,000 people, and Millennium stadium cardiff 75,000-80,000 vs Wales, both in November, doesn't realise how good they have life. Oh and the million dollar high performance centre, Playing in a pacific nations cup with global econmies USA/Japan largest 2 out of 3 econmies in world USA no 1. plus, a spot on the world sevens crucuite the elite 15 team division, and over 200 pacific islander players in europe. I mean fair dinkum . iwish someone would do all those things for me in 2012. SO many developing rugby countries would do anything for that much development .

trolling again johnno? note i said "NZ samoans tour NZ. was a team of NZ based Samoans" ie NZ borns and NZ based samoans. that team would've beaten most teams and given the AB's a reall good run for their money enough living in the past johnno, if its not daveKnox its rodMcQueens era. u need to be in the now. yes we got a big hiding from oz IN THE 90's, the biggest we'd ever gotten was from the boks tho. wish my manuSamoa boys had a chance to even up the score....like last year WHEN WE SMASHED YOU BRO!!! yeeeehaaa GO SAMOA if NZ put together a team of NZ based samoans i reckon aus would get a whipping, not last year, i mean now.

mania if Samoa was so good in the mid 90's how come we aussies we wallabies put 70 on you and the piano removalist captian in 1994 in Sydney. David Knox run rings though you blokes.

fili did u ever get to see the NZ samoans tour NZ? was a team of NZ based Samoans in the early 90's. tehey played mainly division 2 sides but i went to see them play the NZ university's side (@ atheletic park) .they cleaned up every side they played only losing to the maori's though it was a close hard fought game they had a star studded side of michaeljones, vaaigaTuigamala and eroniClark. i always wondered why they never continued with that.

Thanks Mania ... sa'o lava oe lau susuga lol fa'amalulu atu uce'. I must've got carried away as I originally had J Collins omitted from the First XV by mistake, before slotting him in there and forgetting to amend the 'rest of squad' members haha ... otherwise, I'll have to bring in Filipo Levi for that last vacant spot. Yes we have the Molis, the Sailis and the Luatuas but Levi is still well-known compared to these guys (hence my All-Star selection). And indeed Rudi Wulf is a good player but it goes to show that there are still a stack of super Samoan talent that missed out. Forgot to mention the importance of the coaching staff lol Tana Umaga (Head Coach), Michael Jones (Forwards), Frank Bunce (Backs) and Bryan Williams (Manager). Cheers.

johnno - vatuvei, note spelling, is tongan. we'd still have him in a pacific team but fili's put forward a samoan team SMASH THEM USO's

mate they had a documentary called Pacific Warriors which talked about this before - I think Michael Jones was on it.

Johnno the Kiwis do not lose tons of talent to rugby league If NZ changed from RU to RL overnight the biggest winners would be the AFL, as I suspect NZ would start dominating Australia in rugby league.

What a team Fili Tupua. Throw in a few league boys too eg Vatevui, and Francis Meli, and a few others .

Malo Fili. manuia lava uso lelei kele lo team. did u know u mentioned jerry twice? but he's so d4m good i'd have him twice as well. i'd also have rudi wulf in there as well

Good article uso, well done. Other than joining in the various opinions, bottom line is ... it is all about money, sole. That's just reality but nothing will ever take away the Pride of Samoa. We did win a World Champions Sevens tournament, so, along with Fiji, being the small Island nations that we are, this is our only piece of the pie from the IRB ... they're happy, so long as the Sevens series is still growing and providing more money. That's just the way it is. Then again, the Samoa Rugby Union aren't doing themselves any favours by having 'dropped' the Captain (Mahonri Schwalger) who spoke out the truth post-World Cup 2011, and nothing but the truth. Nevertheless, in a perfect world, amongst the active Samoan players around the world regardless of citizenship (the fact they're still Samoans), how's this for an All-Stars 30-man squad Manu Samoa Dream Team - 15 Mils Muliaina 14 Digby Ioane 13 Ma'a Nonu 12 Sonny Bill Williams 11 Julian Savea 10 Isaia Toeava 9 Kahn Fotuali'i 8 Jerry Collins 7 Maurie Fa'asavalu 6 Jerome Kaino 5 Kane Thompson 4 Bradley Mika 3 John Afoa 2 Keven Mealamu 1 Charlie Faumuina Reserves: 16 Mahonri Schwalger 17 Census Johnston 18 George Stowers 19 Victor Vito 20 Tusi Pisi 21 Manu Tuilagi 22 Paul Williams. Rest of squad: Ti'i Paulo, Neemia Tialata, Chris Masoe, Jerry Collins, Rodney So'oialo, Lima Sopoaga, David Smith, Alesana Tulagi.