Samoan team:

I hope Murphy Taramai has learned how to tackle.

@Tim wheres Murphy Taramai playing these days? thought he retired lol..also surprised to see Alapati Leiua in there too! he was a gun when he played Canes, then went all downhill when he left!.. otherwise not a bad team

@BerhamporeNinja

Looks like he plays for SHIMIZU KOTO BLUE SHARKS in Japan's third division.

@BerhamporeNinja said in Samoa vs. Italy 2024:

@Tim wheres Murphy Taramai playing these days? thought he retired lol..also surprised to see Alapati Leiua in there too! he was a gun when he played Canes, then went all downhill when he left!.. otherwise not a bad team

He used to make big runs and break tackles for fun. I wondered what became of him….

@MN5 yup!. and that try against the Crusaders where he beat 8 guys and scored. sheesh

Now he plays club rugby for Ponsonby.

@African-Monkey said in Samoa vs. Italy 2024:

Now he plays club rugby for Ponsonby.

Upgrade!

15 Matt GALLAGHER (Benetton Rugby, debut)
14 Louis LYNAGH (Benetton Rugby, 2 caps)
13 Juan Ignacio BREX (Benetton Rugby, 35 caps)
12 Tommaso MENONCELLO (Benetton Rugby, 17 caps)
11 Monty IOANE (Lyon, 30 caps)
10 Paolo GARBISI (Toulon, 36 caps)
9 Stephen VARNEY (Gloucester Rugby, 29 caps)
8 Ross VINTCENT (Exeter Chiefs, 4 caps)
7 Michele LAMARO (Benetton Rugby, 38 caps) – captain
6 Alessandro IZEKOR (Benetton Rugby, 2 caps)
5 Federico RUZZA (Benetton Rugby, 54 caps)
4 Niccolò CANNONE (Benetton Rugby, 41 caps)
3 Simone FERRARI (Benetton Rugby, 53 caps)
2 Gianmarco LUCCHESI (Benetton Rugby, 22 caps)
1 Danilo FISCHETTI (Zebre Parma, 41 caps)

Replacements
16 Loris ZARANTONELLO (Castres, debut)
17 Mirco SPAGNOLO (Benetton Rugby, 5 caps)
18 Giosuè ZILOCCHI (Benetton Rugby, 21 caps)
19 Edoardo IACHIZZI (Benetton Rugby, 6 caps)
20 Manuel ZULIANI (Benetton Rugby, 21 caps)
21 Lorenzo CANNONE (Benetton Rugby, 19 caps)
22 Martin PAGE-RELO (Lyon, 8 caps)
23 Leonardo MARIN (Benetton Rugby, 9 caps)

This is live on TVNZ One and TVNZ Plus at 3:55pm Friday -

Did they run out of capital letters before Taramai and restock after McFarland?

Afa Moleli on the bench is a young player (20?) from Auckland's University club. From Hawkes Bay originally, IIRC.

Danny Toala just scored, and with the conversion, the scores are tied 25 - 25 after 60 mins.

@Tim said in Samoa vs. Italy 2024:

Afa Moleli on the bench is a young player (20?) from Auckland's University club. From Hawkes Bay originally, IIRC.

And he scored to clinch the game (33 - 25, 2 minutes to go). Solid unit now.

Leiua wasn't very good. A good start for Schwalger.

Just watched it now. How did that Samoa side beat a full strength Italy side haha. Half those Samoan players were barely NPC standard, a huge boilover imo.

@African-Monkey with 100% Samoan pride, cheehoo

@African-Monkey

I think it must be a bit like the Drua home games effect in super rugby.

I couldn’t recognise any names in the Samoa side.

@DaGrubster There's a lot of guys in that side that do play for Moana Pasifika and others that played a bit at NPC level, but they weren't even regulars down at NPC level and a fair few of those Moana players aren't regulars for them either. So there are a fair few familiar faces to NZ viewers, but yeah, a lot if them ain't test level. It's a fairly weak Samoan line up, so this result is huge, and as for the heat factor, Italy were the ones camped on the Samoan try line for a lot of the 2nd half, and a lot of these Samoan players play in NZ anyway, unlike the Drua who are a proper Fiji based side made out of locals mostly.

I must say, Samoa's results against 6 nations opposition in the last 9 months or so has shown massive improvement. They could easily have won against Ireland and England and competed well against Argentina at the world cup as well to go with a big upset against Italy today.

It shows the benefits of having Moana Pasifika playing in a professional comp.