{"id":107478,"date":"2025-08-30T22:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T22:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107478\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T22:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T22:09:08","slug":"joy-for-samoa-as-harmony-vatau-kicks-their-first-world-cup-points-for-11-years-england-womens-rugby-union-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107478\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy for Samoa as Harmony Vatau kicks their first World Cup points for 11 years | England women’s rugby union team"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can keep the 92 points England scored<\/a>. Let\u2019s talk about Samoa\u2019s three. It\u2019s been 11 years since Samoa recorded a point in a World Cup match. They didn\u2019t qualify for the tournaments in 2017 or 2021, and they were whitewashed 73-0 by Australia<\/a> in the first round of this one on the opening weekend. So Franklin\u2019s Gardens fell awfully quiet when the team won a scrum penalty just inside England\u2019s half in the 42nd minute, 32m out, and straight in front of the posts. Everyone knew what was at stake in that next moment, and it was a hell of a lot more than cutting three points off England\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n

Their coach, Ramsey Tomokino, was expecting them to tap-and-go, they had prepared for it in the week, but on the pitch their captain, Sui Pauarasia, turned to her young fly half, Harmony Vatau, and said: \u201cYou got this?\u201d instead. \u201cShe\u2019s a pretty shy player,\u201d Pauarasia said afterwards, \u201cbut she looked back at me and nodded.\u201d The team were so surprised by it that no one thought to bring on a kicking tee, and the players had to scream at the water-carriers waiting on the sidelines to get it on quickly because the shot clock was already ticking. The ball flew straight and true, right between the uprights.<\/p>\n

The place erupted. In the stands, the handful of fans who had travelled around the world to be here started screaming and shouting in celebration, the Samoa team broke out dancing as they ran back to their half. \u201cJust to see the jubilation on the face of Harmony and the girls was heartwarming,\u201d Tomokino said. He really wanted the team to score a try, something they haven\u2019t managed in three games against England across the last two and a half decades, but the looks on players\u2019 faces told you that they were thrilled just to have their first points.<\/p>\n

Samoan fans cheer on their team against England. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Samoa had Glory. She was playing prop forward<\/a>. And they had Faith. She was packing down at hooker<\/a>. Now they had hope, too. What they didn\u2019t have was any time, or money. And it takes both to play like the Red Roses do.<\/p>\n

It takes time and money to scrum like that, to run through the endless drills, and pay for the coaches, analysts, and strength and conditioning coaches who help them learn how to do it. It takes time and money to learn their set-piece routines, time and money to develop the team cohesion which underpins their intricate attacking patterns and defensive plays they use. It takes time and money to learn to kick the ball like Helena Rowland, or to throw it in the wet like Lucy Packer, or handle it like Jade Shekells and Megan Jones.<\/p>\n

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Samoa are amateurs \u2013 their squad includes a property manager, a primary school teacher and a police officer \u2013 and the only reason they\u2019re out there playing is for the love of representing their country. Most of them have to play rugby league if they want to make a living out of sport. There isn\u2019t any cash in Samoan men\u2019s rugby, let alone the women\u2019s game. The governing body has been on the edge of bankruptcy ever since the pandemic. It has been living off its overdraft ever since, a situation, World Rugby argues, that is largely down to a serial mismanagement of distributed funds. It had to cancel the men\u2019s European tour last autumn because it couldn\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n

There have been times when the Samoan women have considered themselves lucky to get paid anything at all. The \u00a31,500 appearance fee paid to each of the England players in this match would cover what the entire Samoa squad has received in full for playing in some recent tournaments. A lot of them had to set up crowdfunding pages to help cover the shortfall in earnings they\u2019re suffering while they are playing over here, so they would have enough to cover their domestic bills. More than once, Tomokino has had to pay operational expenses out of his own pocket.<\/p>\n

Samoa captain Sui Pauaraisa and coach Ramsey Tomokino in tears during the post-match press conference. Photograph: Tom Jenkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cOur girls have worked really hard to be here,\u201d he said. \u201cTo walk off the bus and be applauded like that, we\u2019ve never had that, we\u2019ve never had the opportunity to play in front of 14,000 like we did tonight, and our girls deserve it.\u201d He broke down crying as he spoke. \u201cI know there was a worry that England\u2019s score could get to triple figures, and I know people have been talking about whether that is good for the game or not, but I think what\u2019s good for the game is that we\u2019re here and we\u2019re getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

All they want is a fair shot, just like the one they took to score those three points. \u201cWe\u2019ve been longing to be part of a professional competition for some time,\u201d Tomokino said. \u201cI know if we get given these same opportunities we will be a far stronger team. I long for the day where the competition for the women is like it is for the men, the sooner we can get to there, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can keep the 92 points England scored. Let\u2019s talk about Samoa\u2019s three. It\u2019s been 11 years since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-107478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}