Fatialofa irked by Samoa selections
Sun, 31 Aug 2008 11:51
Samoan rugby legend Peter Fatialofa has protested heavily against Samoan coach Niko Palamo's team selections ahead of the one-off Test against the All Blacks on Wednesday.
Former Samoan prop Fatialofa feels that Palamo's side, which features only two players with Air New Zealand Cup experience, will have no chance against the might of the All Blacks, and that selecting such an understrength team makes the match a futile exercise.
Fatialofa definitely has a point, considering that centres Romi Ropati and Simon Lemalu from Counties Manukau are the only players with any semblance of senior experience in the side. Instead, Palamo has loaded his side with Samoan-based players, most of who are on the fringes of selection in the Air NZ Cup.
The former Auckland prop said that it would have made more sense to select New Zealand-based players with more top-class experience.
"This was an opportunity to use New Zealand and Australian based players to put a strong team together," Fatialofa told Yahoo!Xtra.
"This is not a time to develop local players against the All Blacks.
"It is interesting that there are a lot of sevens players in there.
"But as much as they are trying to promote local players, it is horses for courses. They have basically picked 80 percent from Samoa, but there are players in New Zealand that are playing NPC, whether it is As or Bs, who are available for selection.
"But Niko is trying to keep his combinations together. But he could have looked to New Zealand a bit better.
"He is doing a different approach, hopefully it is the right approach. We don't want the boys to get a thrashing and then have them say, 'Oh well we didn't have a full-strength team'.
"Well we know that, but there are players in New Zealand who are capable of playing for Samoa too."
Fatialofa reiterated the point that Palamo could have done more to include a greater number of New Zealand and Australian-based players, such as Ropati and Lemalu, in order to strengthen the depth of the squad.
"You have to know who you want," he said.
"I am sure if they looked a bit harder and all you have to do is watch the NPC in the last four or five weeks, and I am sure the ones not ear-marked by the All Blacks and are not involved in the system, I am sure a lot of the unions would have taken the same approach as Counties.
"As a rugby nation, we don't want to see a team like Manu Samoa have a big score put up against them. They want to see competitive rugby.
"Even though our top players are in UK, the level of Samoan players in New Zealand is still strong. They could have picked another five or six [from New Zealand]."
Samoan veteran Fatialofa did not mince his words when he predicted the outcome of the match against the Kiwis.
"People have seen the way the All Blacks are playing," he warned.
"As much as I am a supporter of Manu Samoa, the challenge is so big that there is only going to be one result. And that is due to the fact we can't field a full Manu Samoa team."
