Kagifa Samoa are using Global Rapid Rugby's "Pacific Showcase" as an extended job interview, with a firm eye on the proposed expanded competition in 2020.
The Samoan franchise were pipped 38-32 by the Fijian Latui in their Rapid Rugby debut in Lautoka last month before being outclassed 63-5 by the Western Force on Friday in Perth.
CEO Richard Fale said they wanted to be competitive on the field this season, but are already thinking long-term.
"The best way to view these games that we're playing is as a job interview for 2020 and beyond," he said. "We have two franchises that will be operating in the Global Rapid Rugby competition - there's a Hawaii franchise and the Samoa franchise - so there's 70 positions that we need to fill," he said.
"We want to use these games as an opportunity to essentially interview a whole bunch of players and see how they're going to be able to not only perform on the field, which is the most important part, but on top of that we need to be able to know that their character fits with our organisation, their personalities are going to work with the staff that we are going to bring in and they definitely have the IQ to deal with the new concepts and ideas that are going to be introduced through them into rugby union."
The Pacific Showcase continues on Friday night with Kagifa Samoa hosting their first home match against the Fijian Latui in Auckland - with Apia Park currently being renovated for the upcoming Pacific Games - before wrapping up their campaign next weekend with a rematch against the Western Force in Brisbane.
Richard Fale said, while the Fijian franchise has been set up as a development programme for the Fiji national team, Kagifa Samoa does not restrict itself to fielding only players of Samoan heritage.
"You don't have to ethnically be Samoan to be part of the team, which is why we have a significant number of non-Samoans there (including players from Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand and the Cook Islands), because this is a professional franchise operation the same as the Blues or the Crusaders or Toulon or the Saracens," he said.
"We contribute to the development of the Samoa national team but that is not exclusively who we are and how we operate. Our goal and aim is to field the best professional rugby team on the planet."