Buried somewhere between Bill Sweeney’s insistence this week that he is still the right man to lead the Rugby Football Union, the outlandish assertion that “we are on the cusp of something quite spectacular”, the 38-minute monologue of excuses including those for four professional clubs going to the wall, there was one claim that particularly grated. Here was Sweeney effectively complaining about the suggestion that when teams such as Samoa – England’s World Cup opponents on Saturday in Lille – play at Twickenham, they might be given a bigger match fee for their troubles. Woe is Bill.
Sweeney would do well to remember that the last time Samoa were due to play at Twickenham, against the Barbarians in 2021, the match was cancelled at barely 90 minutes’ notice because of a Covid outbreak among the players and support staff of the invitational side. It had been a considerable ordeal for Samoa to convene a squad given travel restrictions brought on by the pandemic and some of their players were reduced to tears at being denied the opportunity to play at Twickenham.
Still, they went out on to the pitch to perform their traditional war dance before doing their best to entertain their crestfallen supporters, then trudging back into the dressing rooms. It was not the RFU’s fault but it was a thoroughly unedifying experience at the home of English rugby.
The time before that when Samoa came to Twickenham, in the autumn of 2017, its union had not long before been declared bankrupt. The RFU – the union with the deepest pockets in the game – made a “goodwill” donation of £75,000 but ruled out sharing the matchday revenue, which tends to be in the region of £10m.
Twickenham was a sell-out that day but listen to Sweeney this week and he had no idea, suggesting that around 60,000 was the norm for Pacific island opposition. The England squad, for their part, held meetings to discuss whether they would donate any of their £22,000-a-man match fees to Samoa players earning £650 but ultimately decided against it because of the precedent it might set.
This week in France, meanwhile, England and Samoa held their team announcement press conferences one after the other at the same stadium. Steve Borthwick and Maro Itoje were asked about the RFU’s plan to introduce 25 lucrative “hybrid contracts” for senior players at a purported cost of £32m. Discretion won out and while Itoje eventually acknowledged it was a “positive” move, Borthwick shouldered arms. “We play Samoa on Saturday and that’s my priority.”
About an hour later and in considerable contrast, Samoa’s head coach, Seilala Mapusua, addressed the fact that Saturday’s match is just the fourth time since the 2019 World Cup that his side have faced tier one opposition. If the gap is closing – World Rugby’s change to its eligibility criteria at least allows Mapusua to select former All Blacks Steven Luatua, Fritz Lee and Lima Sopoaga to face England – it is doing so painfully slowly.
Indeed, asked if it was a regret that Samoa had not been able to better prepare themselves for this World Cup with more fixtures against tougher opposition, Mapusua’s response was poignant: “You can’t regret what you don’t have.”
Should England need a reminder on the debt of gratitude they owe Samoa, they are likely to get it on Saturday, however. Manu Tuilagi, who was born in Samoa and moved to Leicester as a teenager – following in the footsteps of elder brothers Freddie, Henry, Alesana, Andy and Sanele Vavae – will line up against the nation of his heritage for the first time.
As Billy Vunipola experienced against Tonga in 2019, he can expect special attention but it is an occasion he will be relishing and Tuilagi junior has done much to raise the profile of the Pacific Island nations. “As the boss [Mapusua] said, we want to be unapologetically Samoan and Manu understands that,” said the Samoa assistant coach, Tusi Pisi. “The way he plays, he plays like that. We want to be the same. We’ll give him a gift, then he’ll give us a gift, back and forth.”
Gifts aplenty, then, but after what are sure to be bruising opening exchanges, England are expected to win comfortably against a side who have finished strongly against Argentina and Japan – after beating Chile – but have struggled to look more than the sum of their parts at this World Cup.
Borthwick would never admit it but he has selected his first-choice side and that which is expected to line up in their quarter-final – most likely against Fiji – injuries notwithstanding. After overcoming an edgy opening quarter to demonstrate what they are capable of with ball in hand against Chile, England are set to revert to their kick-heavy approach against Samoa and put the squeeze on. The selection of both George Ford and Owen Farrell gives England two playmakers but equally two players adept at putting boot to ball and Borthwick will want to fine-tune preparations for the last eight.
Afterwards, England will make Marseille via one last stop-off at their base camp in Le Touquet while Samoa will head home, their players dispersing to all corners. Next autumn it will be six years since England have hosted them so perhaps it will be time for them to do so again. The hope must be that whenever they do next come to Twickenham, Samoa receive the welcome they deserve.
