Jones knows his 'globetrotters' face tough task

Michael Jones

Former New Zealand test rugby great Michael Jones knows the tough job his "globetrotters" and "refugees" will have against the Junior All Blacks in Auckland tomorrow night.

Jones, coach of Samoa, has had limited preparation time with his full squad ahead of the Pacific Five Nations clash at North Harbour Stadium.

He has spent the week so far getting the combinations going among his players, who have come from England, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and Samoa. Jones said skipper Semo Sititi, a flanker with the Borders club in Scotland, arrived in camp only on Monday morning.

"That makes it a challenge, but it's par for the course, especially for a team that's made up of rugby globetrotters-slash-refugees," he smiled.

"In saying that, the boys have come together amazingly well."

Jones said building team spirit wasn't an issue, because it already existed.

"But it does mean, in terms of training, that you have to do the best with the timeframes you are working with," he said.

"That's always hard when you're facing such tough opposition."

Samoa have had one warm-up fixture, pipping Northland 18-17 last Friday night.

While Jones didn't have his full complement of personnel at his disposal in Whangarei, he said the outing had been of huge benefit.

"A game like that is worth 10 trainings and that's exactly what we needed," he said.

"It highlighted a lot of things we needed to work on. We went out there without any scrum training, so the scrum was average, and we've been able to address that this week."

Samoa have three Super 14 players in their starting 15 against the Junior All Blacks in winger Lome Fa'atau (Hurricanes), centre Seilala Mapusua (Highlanders) and halfback John Senio (Blues).

But they will have to do without another, Chief Loki Crichton, after the fullback suffered an Achilles tendon injury against Northland.

Jones has included nine European-based players in the 15.

Five play in England -- winger Brian Lima (Bristol), second five-eighth Dominic Feaunati and lock Daniel Leo (both London Irish), and No 8 Isaac Feaunati and flanker Jonathan Faamatuainu (both Bath).

The props are French-based pair Jeremy Tomuli (Bayonne) and Filemoni Toleafoa (Montpellier). Meanwhile, the Junior All Blacks have made seven personnel changes to the 15 that began their 35-17 win over Fiji in Suva last weekend.

Among them is the inclusion of Kevin Senio at halfback, where he will have a head-to-head battle with younger brother John.

The others to come in are fullback Ben Atiga, winger Viliame Waqaseduadua, second five-eighth Tamati Ellison, flanker Johnny Leo'o and prop John Schwalger.

Jones said the make-up of the Juniors was a reflection of the strength of New Zealand rugby.

"The reality is that any of their guys could be called up into the All Blacks at any time," he said.

While the inaugural Pacific tournament was a boost for Samoa ahead of next year's World Cup, Jones hoped it was only the start.

"For us, it's always about getting good hard competitive games, because we don't the luxury of being involved in the Super 14," he said.

"This is the best we can do for this year. But it would be great to play teams of the calibre of the Junior All Blacks six times a season. We need to be stretched."

- NZPA