Apia was a sea of blue as young and old took to the streets on Wednesday morning to show their support for Moana Pasifika with team taking part in a parade.

Groups of students from different colleges such as Leififi and St. Marys were invited to join the parade and they did not mind missing out from school to support the Moana Pasifika two days before their game against the Reds. The team's first game in Samoa since they joined Super Rugby in 2022.

The parade started from the Vaisigano bridge and went towards the government building. Patron and senior member of the Moana Pasifika board and former Manu Samoa coach, Bryan Williams recalled similar support he experienced with the Manu Samoa in 1991.

"Just walking down the street today and the march brought back very happy memories of 1991 when I was part of Manu Samoa coaching team, just wonderful memories when we returned from the World Cup in 1991 but we then went to a World Pup in 1995 and World Rugby was about to turn professional," he said.

"Thank you so much for the warmth of your welcome Ponifasio and the comments that you made, you may have reference to an article that you've read which very much encapsulated what our motives are, what our journey is and no one ever said that this was going to be an easy journey and I always tell the story about how long the quest to become part of  Super rugby has been.

"So can I just say thank you to the Government of Samoa for the warm welcome and the sponsors for the support and all the support we're getting as a team and as an organisation. We're all extremely pleased to be here and very grateful for the reception that we've had."

Mr. Williams said the road to get the Super rugby back to the Pacific had been a hard pill to swallow where the whole of the Pacific had been left out of Super Rugby and there had always been a great sense of grievance that he and the others had felt about it.

He stressed that it has taken them all this time to get their quest to enter Super Rugby and they finally managed to do that last year.

Mr. Williams explained that the main purpose of Moana Pasifika's journey is to improve the standard of the national teams in Pacific nations as their quest was to bring the game back to the Pacific.

"Friday night is our first opportunity to come back to the Pacific and we've been warmly welcomed, we certainly hope our people will realise the journey we're on and attend in great numbers on Friday night that's going to be really nice if it happens," he said.

"But all I know is the coaches and every one involved in Moana Pasifika especially the time are trying to make us all proud on Friday night. Super Rugby is a really hard place, many of the teams have been going to 25 to 27 years. 

"So many of these infrastructures bulked up that made them pretty formidable oppositions.

"We found that but last year, we managed to get a couple of good wins against the teams that are doing really well this year, the Hurricanes and the Brumbies and we've been so close so far this year.

"Last minute losses against the Crusaders last Friday night was a classic example. The game was underbalanced and right at the very end of the game, we didn't get it across the line so we're going to be trying very hard to do that on Friday and from here on."

The team will be involved in more community based programs including school visits before the Captain's Run at midday. The Queensland Reds arrived on Wednesday evening.

The match will kick off at 5.05pm at Apia Park.