Mosman continues proud Samoa visit tradition

By Deidre Tautua-Fanene 21 October 2018, 12:00AM

The Mosman Junior Rugby club from Sydney, Australia, love Samoa. 

They are here for their eighth tour since 2010.

Team Manager, Diana Kahui said they bring a different group every year and for this year they’ve only brought a small group.

This year they joined forces with the Samoa Rugby Academy and Robert Louis Stevenson School to play against Aleipata College and Lefaga College.

“The tour was first created to give something back to the Samoan community after the tsunami,” Ms. Kahui told the Sunday Samoan.

“And then every year since 2010 we send a group of boys to come and play rugby, so this year we had a small group of boys who wanted to come so the tour was slightly different.”

Ms. Kahui said the boys have had an amazing experience and they’ve got to play rugby like the locals and learned a lot more about the sport.

“We have also done all the touristy things, so we have been to To Sua, Piula Cave, Paradise Beach and we stayed at Taufua Beach Fales,” she said.

“We had also visited the Minister of Tourism, Salā Fata Pinati and the boys had a really good time as being one of the locals essentially.

“So again these boys have had a fantastic experience of having a Fijian coach who brings a Fijian flavour, having Samoan players in their team and learning how to play rugby the Samoan way, and then bringing their knowledge and experience about rugby in Australia.”

The club also brought with them almost 200 kilos of rugby equipment to give to the schools they visited.

“We donated some rugby gears to Aleipata and Lefaga College and we have also donated to Samoa Rugby Academy and Robert Louise Stevenson School.

“In terms of money given to the tourism economy this tour, we would have spent A$80,000 (T$151,531) on the tour and that doesn’t count the cash gifts we gave when visited somewhere like Senese.

“We visit Sense as well just to meet and it’s tradition to always go and meet them whenever we come to Samoa and it’s part of community service for these boys to meet all different aspects of Samoan life.”

They participated in tournament where they played against Leafaga College for the trophy donated by Alan Grey, which Leafaga won for the third time.

The group also met the Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi. 

By Deidre Tautua-Fanene 21 October 2018, 12:00AM
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