Rugby: Worldwide success trickles back home

Captain Richie McCaw and the All Blacks witnessed some stunning talent in a training run with Samoan children. Photo / Dean Purcell

Exported players send earnings to family but rugby riches yet to come

Samoa is the land of plenty - in human terms at least. There are, almost unbelievably, more than 630 Pacific Islanders playing professionally worldwide.

Samoa accounts for about one-third of those and players sending money back home are one of the biggest contributors to the economy.

Athletes have become commodities in Samoa - tradeable entities that can use their natural sporting gifts to generate income.

In a recent interview with NZ Rugby World, former Highlanders flanker Alando Soakai said: "My parents came to New Zealand to search for a better living. They were working here and sending money back to family and they pretty much had the same attitude in New Zealand as they did in the village: they wanted to live that way. Their values and traditions were just the same and it was all about living in big families.

"Rugby has been a way for many of us to give something back and put food on the table."

Rugby is the route many young Samoans choose to follow as the best way for them to be able to contribute to that traditional way of life.

Rugby is the means by which many can be providers to their families and villages.

It has become big business and is going to get bigger. The talent pool, as those All Blacks who took more than 100 local children through a coaching session in Apia discovered, is endless.

The athletic potential of some was quite stunning. At just 12 years old, Metuli Esera nearly knocked Hika Elliot off his feet in one drill.

His physical size was quite staggering and yet he had an impressive top speed and pulled off one jaw-dropping move where he picked the ball off the ground at speed, with just one hand on top.

There were a few other boys the same age, nearly as big and as mobile and it was easy to see the next Will Skelton and Jerome Kaino.

Samoa will keep churning out the raw materials.

But while there is fascination about how this tiny island nation continues to give so much to the world game, it is conversely just as fascinating that their talent is not reflected in the world standing of Manu Samoa.

The sum of the collective parts never quite adds up to what the individuals bring and this is where change needs to occur. And maybe it will.

The Samoan team were able to train at their newly built high performance centre this week.

It's not so much the bricks and mortar that is significant - more the fact they now have a sense of professionalism that was perhaps missing before.

The arrival of former All Black and Hurricanes assistant Alama Ieremia has added to that feeling and the players, critically, feel that management and administration now have their backs.

If there is one overriding sentiment to be taken from the Samoan camp, it's that they are finally working in unison with a genuine desire to succeed. And there is equally no doubt that if they can all pull in the same direction, they have everything they need to succeed.