Samoa prepare for ‘mission impossible’ against England

England vs. Samoa Rugby World Cup: Women’s World Cup

Date: Saturday, August 30th, 2018 Kick-off: 17:00 BST

The amateur Samoa side has a different opinion of Saturday’s match against the world’s top-ranked team.

Head coach Ramsey Tomokino has urged his players to “wilt the rose” and “cause the upset of the year” by describing the game against the fully professional Red Roses as their “mission impossible.”

We just need to put our five little stones in their hands and see what we can do, Tomokino said, “because this is the ultimate David and Goliath story.”

Tomokino said the Northampton match’s players “took it really hard,” but he believes Samoa’s biggest match has already come to an end.

He claimed that Australia was his country’s biggest game. The outcome of that game had the potential to alter how we played the World Cup. There, we struggled.

We still have a goal to pursue. We might cause the biggest upset of the year, but you never know until this weekend. “It’s going to be tough.

The coach quickly points out that “the same thing happens at men’s rugby world cups” when asked whether big scores and one-sided games are bad for the tournament.

And he is correct. At the 2023 tournament, France won by France with a score of 90 to 16-0 in Namibia and Scotland with a score of 80-0 in Romania.

The stories of the six mothers who make up the squad show how sacrificed the Samoans made.

While World Rugby provides all of the players’ travel, lodging, food, and facilities, the majority of the players personally crowd-funded so they could attend the tournament without leaving their jobs behind.

Although she has a leave of absence from her position as a clinical administrator at Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand, Captain Sui Pauaraisa was almost unable to travel due to the influence of her daughters.

The last year of my eldest student is in school. As she checked the time on her phone, she said, “I have to wake her up soon for school.”

That sacrifice is it. I want to see them both play the game.

“They love the game, they love the sport, and that’s why I keep coming,” she says. “Both of these young girls coming through, and also for my little ones.” They also back me.

Prop Denise Aiolupotea has four children, ages 15 and 13, at home.

She states, “You’re always going to have that “mum guilt.” But I just hope that they realize that I’m doing this both for myself and for them, and that all is possible.

You can never go out and pursue what you really want to do because you’re never too old, fragile, or anything else.

Nina Foaese, the eighth-ranked mother, leans on her team-mates because she missed her son’s birthday this week.

They actually make things much simpler, she claimed. My family and I still communicate via FaceTime and engage in video and other activities, but I believe it helps to be such a close-knit community. You all work together to support one another.

When centre Fa’asua Makisi’s mother surprised her at the end of the Australian game, the evidence of family bonds won hearts on social media.

She said, “I didn’t actually see her until the end of the game because I thought I had no family here for the game,” and that she had mentally prepared for that.

She probably had no sleep when she arrived from New Zealand at 8am. One of my friends told me a lie to get me to the stand, and when I saw her, I screamed and then started crying.

One of Samoa’s players can be seen urging an England fan to “chee hoo” in a TikTok video.

Both the captain and the coach both laughed and said it was a regular shout of joy in the group when asked about it. The demi-god Maui frequently uses the celebratory shout in the Disney film Moana.

The perfect future for Samoa’s players would be more opportunities to play in professional settings and more Tests against top nations, despite the small victories on Saturday expected to be the result of a big tackle or a dynamic charge up the field.

Opportunities are constrained, which is the issue. The majority of the squad resides in New Zealand, where they compete in the Farah Palmer Cup domestically, but because of restrictions on non-New Zealand players’ places in the larger Super Rugby Aupiki, they are unable to compete there.

There have been discussions about a team for Australia’s Super W competition, and some English Premiership Women’s Rugby coaches have been looking around the team. Additionally, there may be paid positions in American women’s elite rugby.

However, rugby union players from the Pacific Islands have long had financial difficulties.

Aiolupotea expressed her gratitude for the positive influence the team is having on young Samoan women.

She said, “It really touches your heart, it’s something else that you can’t really explain,” “It really touches your heart,” she said.

Just watching the young girls and the community emulate you in that same jersey, hopefully one day, makes me aspire to be one.

“We anticipate what the young people will do in the future.”