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Although Tests are international matches, they often emphasise the domesticity of the game.
When the Kangaroos play the Kiwis, Australia and New Zealand feel closer than when, say, the Roosters, take on the Warriors.
Similarly, when Toa Samoa take on Fiji Bati, it reminds you how close-knit the rugby league Community is in the Pacific.
That’s especially clear when the Test takes place in a Pacific venue, as occurred in yesterday afternoon’s match at Apia Park, the first official Pacific Test to be held in Samoa.
For my money, this was one of the most stirring rugby league matches this season and a really great experience to watch.
The stage was set by the opening anthems. Surrounded by local singers and traditional dress, the players from both teams felt at home in a different kind of way from the regular NRL season.
Although Apia Park is an international venue, the crowd had the relaxed, attentive manner typical of a much smaller ground – with lots of kids running around, there was a bit of a picnic feel, like Belmore or Leichhardt at their most convivial.
At the same time, there was a real sense of gravity, with the Minister for Sports Education and Culture doing a ceremonial kickoff to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Toa Samoa.
Once things got started, I found myself breathing a sigh of relief to see a game conducted without the Bunker. For better or worse, everything came down to the refs, and in the absence of any contentious decisions that made for an afternoon of free-flowing, football.
It felt right that Sam Kasiano plunged through a bunch of Fijian defenders four minutes in to set the momentum that would continue to build over the course of the game.
More to the point, it launched the Samoan commentators into plaudits for Big Man Sam that would last the next eighty minutes.
Although I knew Kasiano was an icon in his home country, I didn’t realise just how big he was – no pun intended – until experiencing yesterday afternoon’s commentary.
Every chance they got, the commentators came up with a new nickname for the Bulldogs enforcer – the “human crane” was my favourite – and hearing them wax lyrical on his prowess was one of the high points of the game.
Ten minutes later, Toa Samoa scored again up the right side of the field, with Ken Maumalo walking over Marcelo Montoya off the back of a deft pass from Tim Lafai.
Within the first quarter of the game, Kasiano and Maumalo made it look as if the Bati defence was simply nonexistent.
Three minutes later, Maumolo went over again, with Mathew Wright perfectly judging the wind to follow up with a third straight conversion.
Given the general Fijian fumbling and inability to complete sets, it felt as if the Samoans had won the game already. As one of the commentators put it, “the celebrations began in the first half.”
But, as fate would have it, those were to be the only 18 points laid down at Apia Park by Toa Samoa.
Sometimes a team benefits from being ground down so quickly, and the dominance of Samoa seemed to galvanise the Fijians to fight back.
After all, the only real choices at this point in the game were to stage a massive comeback or suffer an excruciating loss.
It felt apt, then, that it was Montoya who brought in the first try of the afternoon for the Bati, making up for his non-defence of Maumolo with a four-pointer off the back of a brilliant offload from Pio Seci.
Even then, you could be forgiven for calling it a one-off, especially with Moceidreke failing to convert after three straight two-pointers from Wright.
But things quickly looked up with the Bati, as Montoya found open space and nearly scored a double before he was taken down by the Samoans.
Still, he managed to get the Steeden down the other end of the field and from there, Fiji made a series of pummelling attacks on the Samoan line, culminating with a brilliant offload from Moceidreke as he lay pinned to the ground.
Picking it up, Korbin Sims handed it back to James Storer who managed to crash over with a couple of Samoans on his back.
With Moceidreke bookending the try with the first Fijian conversion of the afternoon, it finally felt as if the Bati were back in the game.
They probably would have scored again several minutes later had Montoya not accidentally knocked a perfectly-placed grubber over the sideline.
Over the afternoon, there was no player on the field who was more inconsistent than the Fijian flyer, and yet he was probably a real contender for man of the match just because of how brilliantly he bounced back from his worst moments.
Yet in another one of those turns that seemed so poetic for the Fijians, Brayden Williame managed to make good off another grubber – this time from Hendry Raiwalui – just before half-time, bringing the score to 16/18 once Moceidreke got it through the uprights.
With the siren sounding just as the Steeden sailed through, it was a classic moment, and set the stage for a really suspenseful second half.
Over the course of the next forty minutes, Toa Samoa couldn’t quite seem to get it together, with brilliant moments from both Kasiano and Lafai remaining untapped by the team at large.
Several times Samoa came close to scoring again – especially at the 64th minute, as well as off the back of Lafai’s mad dash moments later – but the only remaining points came off Tyronne Phillips’ brilliant intercept try and Moceidreke’s subsequent conversion.
It was a tribute to the Bati’s increasing dexterity with ball handling and skill with offloads over the second forty minutes.
It was also a tribute to the Bati’s improved defence over the second stanza, with the Fijians managing to hold Samoa at bay over three agonising sets.
Like all Tests, though, the victory was subsumed into the general sense of rugby league camaraderie and good sport.
At the same time, the closeness of the result, the unexpectedness of the Fijian victory and the fact of this being the first official home Test for Samoa created a narrative that will galvanise these teams even more next time they meet.
Here’s hoping that next weekend’s match between the Kangaroos and the Kiwis is full of the same sense of drama, community and good sportsmanship.
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