Rugby league in Samoa
| Rugby league in Samoa | |
|---|---|
| Country | Samoa |
| National team(s) | Samoa |
Rugby league is a popular team sport in Samoa.
Many Samoans and New Zealanders or Australians of Samoan descent play professional rugby league in Australia or Great Britain, such as the Super League. One of the examples is Va'aiga Tuigamala, who represented the New Zealand All Blacks, then became the first million dollar player to be contract out to Rugby League to play for Wigan Warriors, then played Rugby Union for Newcastle Falcons before representing Samoa. Ta'ane Lavulavu of Workington Town, Maurie Fa'asavalu of St Helens and David Fatialofa of Whitehaven are other examples.
When rugby union went professional players such as Apollo Perelini and Fereti "Freddie" Tuilagi left rugby league to return to the 15-man game.
Governing body
The governing body for rugby league in Samoa is the Samoan Rugby League. They are members of the Rugby League International Federation and the Pacific Islands Rugby League Federation.
National team
The Samoa national rugby league team has been participating in international rugby league competition since 1988. From 1988 to 1997 this team was known as the Western Samoa rugby league team.
Western Samoa participated in the Pacific Cup (1988-1996), World Sevens (1994, 1995) and Superleague World Nines (1996, 1997) competitions.
Samoa has participated in the Pacific Cup (since 1998), World Cup (since 2000), World Sevens (2003) and Pacific Rim (2004) competitions. Samoa reaching the quarter finals of the 2000 Rugby League World Cup.
Samoa is ranked 8th in the world of Rugby League.