Pacific International Stars in Action This Weekend

Samu Manoa of San Francisco
Tonga descent

Northampton Saints (NHS) is one of the best Rugby teams in the Aviva Premiership championship (UK). NHS lost in the Semi Final in 2012 Premiership against its arch-rival Leicester RFC, but coming out strongly against its rivals in this 2013 Premiership opening rounds - a promising start. But I was extremely impressed by the impact the Pacific Islanders brought to the team. NHS took on the top team of the Premiership, Saracen Rugby Club, yesterday and completely hammered; the worst Saracen defeat in the club's history.
Samu Manoa - beside scoring one of the NHS' Trys of the match, had been completely in control of the forwards; breaking the Saracen's defense a few times and sets up important breaks for his team. His Try came out of nothing; running down and just brushed asides two forward tacklers, side-stepped the full-back, and dived for the Try line between the goal-posts earning him the man of the match in the end. His running, turning over balls, tackling, and line-out brilliance contributed to the NHS' amazing victory over the league's top team. Manoa signed with the Premiership after helping his team in SF Golden Gate club win the Nation's top league (USA), for two years and been with this club till now. He is also currently playing for the US national team, the US Eagles in international tests. He is a valuable assert for both NHS and the US Eagles.

Pisi Brothers (George and Ken) of Samoa

The Pisi brothers also played a crucial part in the NHS' victory, helped shutting down the fast moving Saracen backliners and instrumental in set-pieces and the execution of the club's game plan. The two brothers are the two of the three Samoan brothers now playing high-level Rugby in the UK and New Zealand Super Rugby, something common to Samoan Rugby families. The Tuilagi brothers is another example; all played for Leicester Rugby FC in UK, and at one point, Alesana Tuilagi and Manu Tuilagi both played together for the Leicester club.
George outran Saracen's backliners in some of the crucial breaks of the match, and in the second half, he took on the backs, sucked in the outside center and offloads the ball to his brother who was left unguarded on the right wing. Ken raced to the Try line and added another Try for the NSH. The two brothers are crucial to the NHS.

Kahn Fotuali'i - Samoa

Kahn Fotuali'i, former Crusader's and Manu Samoa's scrump-half, also played a crucial role in leading the NHS team to victory. His quick thinking and careful reading of the match was crucial to the NHS' victory. His box-kicks were quite high giving NHS runners opportunity to compete for the ball and most of the time won the ball back for their team. The decision for box-kicking, passing, and quick tap are crucial roles of the Scrum-half. In my opinion, he executed them perfectly. And in Rugby, the Scrum-half is said to be the "eyes" of the Forwards whose main role is to put their heads down during scrummage and push. The Scrum-half is also the link between the forwards and the back-liners. In both of these roles, Fotuali'i did exceptionally well. His quick tap in the Saracen's 22 puts all the Saracen's players off-side caught them completely off-guard, but was taken down by backline cover-runners from the right side of the pitch but kept the ball alive. The decision led to another Try for the NHS. These Islanders and others playing in various teams in UK and France, will be crucial to the Pacific Islands' performance in 2015 Rugby World Cup.
In 2011 Rugby World Cup, Manu Samoa took on Number 2 ranked nation of South Africa in a match the world witnessed the might of the Samoans, only lost by a very narrow margin. And prior to that world championship, Samoa crushed one of the most powerful Rugby nations in the Southern Hemisphere and in the world, the Wallabies - Australia, in a stunning defeat before their home crowd. And though some complained the referee was extremely biased against Samoa in their match against South Africa, the South Africans did acknowledge the power and agility of the Samoans. But one can only say that the Samoan export players contributed tremendously to the rise in Samoan rugby quality. During that RWC, Tonga defeated France in their pool match but was decimated by the world's top Rugby nation, New Zealand All Blacks. France went on to face the All Blacks and only lost by a single point. Fiji, on the other hand, defeated Wales in the previous RWC (2007) and decimated Namibia in 2011.
There's no doubt that the rise of Pacific Island nations in the Rugby ranks is cause for concern for big developed country teams such as England, France, Australia, and New Zealand. The upcoming RWC will expect to see better results for these Island nations.