World Cup run put Samoa on the map

APOLLO PERELINI THE FORMER SAMOA AND SALE SHARKS BACK ROWER

-  Jon Newcombe

WHEN we beat Wales in the 1991 World Cup it was the highlight of my Rugby Union career. To win 16-13, at the Arms Park, such an iconic stadium, in front of all those Welsh fans, made it really special.

The acknowledgement of the crowd for what we achieved flowed all the way through the Pacific Islands and everyone felt proud to be Samoans.

Before then, no one knew where Western Samoa was. My parents just said ‘well done, good on ya’ to me when I was selected to play for New Zealand U21s – alongside Martin Johnson – it wasn’t really that much of a big deal to them but representing Samoa at a Rugby World Cup… that made them so, so proud.

It is not unusual for Samoans to name their offspring after famous world events, and I was christened Apollo as I was born around the time of the moon landings. On this occasion, our centre and try-scorer, To’o Vaega, named his eldest son, Cardiff ! What’s more, we went on to play Scotland in the quarter-finals the week that Tevita Sio’s son (the Aussie prop) was born, and he called him Scotland – or Scott as he is known in rugby circles today.

The great thing about that team, when I look back, is that we had so many good ball-players. We weren’t technically as good as most of the teams and our set-piece wasn’t a strong point, either, but our ball skills were right up there with the best. Even the props could throw 15-20 yard passes. The way we played the game is probably the equivalent to how Super Rugby is played now. We tried to avoid contact and getting sucked into mauls because we wanted to use the ball. When the opposition had the ball though, we loved contact!