Cometh the hour cometh the man. Stephen Crichton. It was the drop goal in golden-point extra time that turned the rugby league world on its head.

Samoans everywhere were awestruck as they saw the oval shaped ball fly between the sticks at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium in London on Sunday morning, to hand Toa Samoa a shocking 27–26 victory over England to sneak into the Rugby League World Cup grand-final next weekend. 

The record keepers of the 13-a-side code were reaching for their books as millions of British rugby league fans, yet again, rue their chances at the third successive Rugby League World Cup semi-final match defeat following similar disappointments at the 2013 and 2017 tournaments. 

Toa Samoa’s victory marked the first time in rugby league world cup history for a Tier 2 nation to advance to the grand-final. The dominance that Tier 1 nations enjoyed at all successive rugby league world cup grand finals, appeared to be a distant memory as Samoans around the world celebrated their team’s rare feat. 

From Apia to Auckland to London and to Anchorage in Alaska, Samoans from all walks of life and young and old were in unison, waving their flags and cheering on their heroes as they joined the celebrations.

They had just disposed of England who joined New Zealand, who were bundled out 24 hours earlier by the favourites Australia. Toa Samoa entered the tournament at eight position a month ago and could find themselves in the top 3, depending on how they go next Sunday.

But the team’s uniting of Samoans living in the four corners of the planet, over the 6-week duration of the tournament, is unprecedented and the fact that it is happening in the year of our 60th Independence anniversary makes it even special.

We are in awe of this special group of players – who only a month ago were given a 60-6 hiding by England in the Rugby League World Cup opener at the group stage – and used that defeat to motivate themselves to sweep aside everything before them including the English.

Today they have rewritten the history books and are 80 minutes away from putting the icing on the cake of one of the greatest sporting stories ever. 

We have no doubt that all rugby league playing nations of the Pacific islands have a new “daddy” in the house, if we can borrow the phrase that the Penrith Panthers and Toa Samoa superstar five-eight, Jarome Luai coined when he took a dig at their 2022 grand final rivals Parramatta.

The fact that a number of the Toa Samoa players were eligible for AUD$20,000 match payments each, if they had played for Australia and pulled on the Kangaroos jersey in this Rugby League World Cup, also means they’ve earned the respect of a lot of fans here and abroad for not letting match payments determine who they represent on the world stage.

So where does this champion squad of Toa Samoa players go from here after their historic victory early Sunday morning?

We can only say enjoy the limelight but keep your feet grounded and stick to your normal routine in terms of your training and game preparation for the upcoming weekend.

You can be assured that you will be in our prayers as you begin your preparations for the historic grand-final at Old Trafford. Regardless of the outcome this weekend, you are already our champions, having put this tiny dot of a nation in the Pacific on the world map and uniting thousands of Samoans around the globe.

We are reminded of a famous quote by American football coach Vince Lombardi (1913–1970) who said, “It's not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up!”

But then we realise how you’ve been doing that since you lost the first game in the current tournament.

Last but not the least, a big fa'afetai tele lava to all those working behind-the-scenes to get the playing squad primed for the assignment including the Head Coach Matt Parish and all his assistants.

While some will write off Samoa’s chance of making history – we believe anything is possible and the Australian Kangaroos, while being highly rated, are human and just as vulnerable as anyone else on the playing field that day. God bless Toa Samoa.