Wales have played Samoa more times than Australia have...!

I was quite surprised to read an article previewing tomorrows game between Australia and Samoa to find out Australia have only played their near neighbours, (in a global sense), six times. When Wales, on the other side of the planet have played them 7.

Australia have played tonga four times when most nations have only played Tonga twice. Consider that australia have played Wales 30 times, France have played south Africa 38 times and England have played New Zealand 34 times, who have only played Samoa 5 times.

The pacific islanders are some of the best rugby players in the world, some of the most talented, though their nations are by far some of the poorest.

Should we all be playing these nations more often to help them raise more funds and maybe improve...?

Wales have been one of the nations who in the amateur era to play games away to weaker nations. Though frankly any time we go to a strong nation we normally get smashed. Off memory we toured the Islands in 1986 and 1994. Though after what happened in 1994 in Samoa, it is no wonder Wales have shown no desire to go back!
Apparently at the hottest time of their year they played the game at the hottest time of day, knowing Wales would simply be unable to handle the heat. Several of Wales players collapsed on the field, many were sick and all were suffering severe dehydration. Wales lost 34-9.

maestegmafia wrote:I was quite surprised to read an article previewing tomorrows game between Australia and Samoa to find out Australia have only played their near neighbours, (in a global sense), six times. When Wales, on the other side of the planet have played them 7.

Australia have played tonga four times when most nations have only played Tonga twice. Consider that australia have played Wales 30 times, France have played south Africa 38 times and England have played New Zealand 34 times, who have only played Samoa 5 times.

The pacific islanders are some of the best rugby players in the world, some of the most talented, though their nations are by far some of the poorest.

Should we all be playing these nations more often to help them raise more funds and maybe improve...?

What you expect, this is one PI nation that both Aus and NZ poach for League and Union players.

In our defence, the Samoans are huge. Why volunteer to put yourself through that unnecessarily?

Full Credit wrote:In our defence, the Samoans are huge. Why volunteer to put yourself through that unnecessarily?

No need to say in your defence. I Think that all should play them far more regularly than we do and it would be wonderfully if the lions returned to pacific island shores and maybe a few more NH teams too.

You could argue its a health hazard playing them, they play dangerously, with silly tackling, which can injure players, which puts insurance premiums up. God knows what Wales will pay with Fiji and Samoa in their pool.

AlynDavies wrote:You could argue its a health hazard playing them, they play dangerously, with silly tackling, which can injure players, which puts insurance premiums up. God knows what Wales will pay with Fiji and Samoa in their pool.

A miserable, cold and wet day here in Sydney with 3.5 hours to kick off.

Yes Alyn, it makes for a potentially even more injury prone day... even if the turf is holding up well as it does at ANZ.

O'Connor is out due to a slight hammy strain and Davies will make his debut. Good to see some more Red in the team...they rarely disappoint!

welshjohn369 wrote:What you expect, this is one PI nation that both Aus and NZ poach for League and Union players.

This is true. we recognised decades ago what an international powerhouse Samoa would be if they got to select all their players. So we decided to improve our economies encouraging migration as a pretence to running the greatest battery of tests of 2-5 year olds, so we could determine which of them would become All Blacks or Wallabies.