The Samoa Rugby Union is embarking on an ambitious programme that is expected to result in more locally talented players being included in the Manu Samoa in future.
SRU Chief Executive Officer, Faleomavaega Vincent Fepuleai says this has been the union’s plan for the last 12 months.
“We’re looking at a way to re-spark how we can manage rugby in Samoa, basically to put more local talent under the microscope,” he says.
“As you all know, our Manu Samoa consists of a lot of talent brought in from overseas and most of our athletes are from overseas. However, we’re looking at the future where there are more local players than those from other countries,” he said.
“There is a lot of criticism as to why we bring so many overseas players in to play, stealing all the spots for our local players and that’s correct because the goal for SRU is to produce local talent so they can fill up the spots in our Manu Samoa international test squad,” he added.
To make this dream a reality for Samoa, Faleomavaega and his management at SRU are looking at mass producing players through more local competitions.
Currently there is only one official competition called the National Provincial Cup played out annually for the small group of athletes in Samoa to compete at a high level.
To reach such a high level, the best of the best must be matched up against each other, hence the establishment of the new tournament focused on bringing in only the best from each union to compete.
“The problem is we have only one competition running and in that competition we have a mixed of athletes and it gets hard to distinguish the serious players who want to be in Manu Samoa from those who just play for fun,” added Faleomavaega.
“So we’re going to put together a competition that mirrors what the Super 16 is for New Zealand and Australia,” said Faleomavaega.
The strategy is they bring each rugby union in Samoa, such as Marist, Apia Rugby Union, and unions from Savai’i to clash in one tournament.
“In this tournament, they pick their best and most committed players to the game,” added Faleomavaega.
While it makes it easy for SRU to spot local growing talent, it allows for these athletes to compete at the highest level that Rugby Samoa has to offer by pitting the best of each union against each other.
The idea though sounds good on paper, but Faleomavaega says they aim to implement it next year. However, there are a few challenges left to tackle.
As of now, there has not been a confirmation about how many unions will take part in it, but the number is somewhere between eight and 10.
Photo: Renee McKay/SRU