Manu Samoa

Ofisa Treviranus will captain the team, which features 18 forwards and 13 backs, and includes the return of prop Logovii Mulipola and midfielder Rey Lee Lo.

Local trio Jake Grey, Vavao Afemai and Patrick Faapale have also made the cut.

Injury has ruled out prop James Johnston, halfback Pele Cowley and former captain David Lemi, while hot competition means the likes of flanker Faifili Levave and outside backs Sinoti Sinoti, Paul Williams and Ah See Tuala have missed the cut.

The France-based flyer will partner Gabiriele Lovobalavu as McKee selected his strongest side to tackle the physical Samoans.

He said the team named reflected the importance of the Samoa game balancing game-time for the players in the lead-up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

McKee believed the players selected would put an end to the below par second half performance the side displayed against the Maori All Blacks, Samoa and Japan earlier this season.

"Our focus on key areas of the game must improve after halftime.

It took an injury time try for the Manu to beat Canada 21-20 in a physical encounter .

Injuries from that match have taken their toll with electric centre Paul Perez, hooker Motu Matuu and halfback Pele Cowley all unavailable for the final.

Betham says the focus for team selection has been to pick a squad that would keep intensity for the full 80 minutes of the game.

He says they came out of the last game against Canada happy to take the win, but a little bruised from the things they didn't get right.

The team is:

1. Sakaria Taulafo

Two days of intensive interviews with high profile applicants from Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Samoa were completed last Friday.

Legendary names such as top Sevens points scorer and former English Sevens skipper Ben Collings, Sevens maestro Waisale Serevi and Samoa’s Brian Lima have been floated as some of the applicants.

The Samoa Rugby Union is in a desperate position and running out of time as the players who made the national team showed their skills in the recent Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea with a very disappointing result.

The Manu Samoa team threatened to boycott a test match against England in November over concerns about the governance and management of the SRU.

Since then a new CEO, General Manager and High Performance Manager have been appointed.

The Union also committed to implementing governance, management and financial reforms, recommended in an independent review.

The chief executive officer Faleomavaega Vincent Fepuleai says the relationship between players and the SRU is improving.

The rivalry between the two teams has been in existence since they first met during the 1924 Test in Apia, Samoa, where Fiji won 6-0.

The two sides have played on 47 occasions with Fiji winning 26 games to Samoa's 19. Both sides have recorded two draws in 1988 and 1982.

The national side also recorded their biggest score line against Samoa in 1996 encounter where Fiji handed Samoa one of its heaviest defeats 60-0 at the National Stadium in Suva.

However, despite Fiji's winning record, the national side has been winless in their past four meetings.

Strawbridge, who is now in Waikato Hospital in a critical but stable condition, arrived back on a medical flight from Apia on Friday after being struck down by a rare illness there.

He had gone to Samoa last week as technical adviser for the Manu Samoa national rugby side ahead of the All Blacks test.

But on Tuesday, the day before the test, he was admitted to Moto'otua National Hospital in Apia with an infection in his right eye which had deteriorated rapidly.

He played 38 tests and 75 matches for the All Blacks in the 1970s but he was also Samoa's head coach at the 1991 World Cup.

Samoa beat Wales and Argentina to finish second behind Australia in their group, which made the rugby world suddenly take sit up and notice of teams from the Pacific Islands.

His son Paul played for Samoa at the last World Cup and he said he could never understand why it had taken so long for New Zealand to play in Samoa.