PRESS RELEASE
MANU SAMOA RUGBY WORLD CUP 2007
TOUR REPORT
Date 03 September 2007
Manu
Samoa Arrive in France
Apia,
Samoa: 3 September 2007 –The Manu Samoa team
arrived in Paris on Friday after almost three weeks at the prestigious
sports university, London’s Loughborough University.
Head
coach La’auli Michael Jones says the Manu’s final
training camp at Loughborough has been invaluable preparation
for the World Cup campaign. It had given the team the best possible
build-up to do well at the 2007 tournament.
However,
the build-up has come at a cost. Prop Donald Kerslake and Lock/No.
8 Filipo Levi have both been ruled out with injuries. Kerslake
(broken ribs) and Levi (eye) have been replaced by Alfie Tooala
and Tanielu Fuga respectively. Both replacement players play
professionally in Europe and are available .Despite the injuries
Laauli says he was happy with how the squad performed at their
three-week training camp and is looking forward to their first-up
match with SouthAfrica. The camp helped the Manu achieve five
important goals says Laauli: improving match fitness after many
of the squad had not played since June; testing team combinations;
cementing selections for the first match; introducing elements
of their game plan; and building team morale.
In
a previous interview, Laauli outlined why Loughborough was crucial,
“People know what to expect from Samoa so we can't sneak
up on them like we did in 2003. They know what we can do what
we’re capable of. So we are approaching every game as
a target.“We have to target the South African game and
try and roll them. Then we have to get past Tonga, who are very
similar to us and can cause an upset. They play the same way
and they could beat us, then we have to play England six days
later. In 2003 we got our easy pool games out of the way first
and then stepped up against England, but this time we have to
be ready to go from the first game and that’s why Loughborough
was so important.”
Samoa's first match against South Africa (RSA) is on Sunday,
9 September at the Parc des Princes in Paris.
On the social side, Su’a P. Schuster by email wrote, “The
team attended church service in the morning, had lunch and a
sightseeing tour of Paris. The team visited Eiffel Tower, Notre
Dame and the Louvre museum. Manu Samoa was accorded a special
opportunity to witness the original painting of Mona Lisa by
Leonardo da Vinci. It was ‘Awesome stuff’.”
Su’a went on to write, “…there is a lot of
interest in the RWC in France and the Manu Samoa team was greeted
with interest by people at the sites visited.”
Messages
from well-wishers are pouring in which the team is grateful
to and drawing inspiration from.
Well wishers can send email messages through to tours_events@srfu.ws
or sruoffice@srfu.ws
Or fax messages to the following numbers:
| Accommodation |
Dates |
Address |
Fax
Numbers |
| Base
Camp Paris
Courtyard by Marriot
Neuilly Paris |
Aug
31-
25 Sept |
Courtyard
- 58, Boulevard Victor Hugo
92200 Neuilly Sur Seine Paris France
|
33
1 55636466 |
| Match
2
Mercure Antigone |
15-17
Sept |
285,
Boulevard de l'Aeroport - 34000
Montpellier
France
|
(+33)4/67206364 |
| Match
3
Mercure Ile de Nantes |
21-23
Sept |
15
Boulevard Alexandre Millerand,
44200 Nantes France
|
(+33)2/40482383 |
| Match
4
La Charpiniere |
25-27
Sept |
La
Charpiniere, 42330 Saint Galmier |
|
