Jarome Luai has revealed how a desire to be a trailblazer for young Polynesian halves has been the driving force behind only ever wanting to play Tests for Samoa.<\/p>\n
Some eight years after making his debut for the nation as a Penrith reserve grader, Luai can help take Samoa to a maiden trophy in Sunday’s Pacific Cup final against New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Halves have for a long time been the biggest stumbling block for Pacific nations, who are often stocked with powerful outside backs and big middles.<\/p>\n
But with Luai and Blaize Talagi in the halves, Samoa also loom as a genuine contender for next year’s World Cup after reaching the last final in 2022.<\/p>\n
Talagai this week credited Luai as his inspiration in the halves, with his Penrith successor believing the half had long paved the way for young Polynesian playmakers.<\/p>\n
“That’s my why,” Luai told AAP. <\/p>\n
“It’s why I have always wanted to represent Samoa on the international stage. I haven’t represented anyone else. <\/p>\n
“And that was always the vision behind it, for guys like Blaize and the next up-and-coming guys. <\/p>\n
“All these guys that I think will be good enough one day to represent Origin and Australia, but they have Samoa in their hearts.”<\/p>\n
Luai is one of only a handful of Polynesian halves to have played State of Origin, with his 10 games for the Blues the most of any Pacific Island playmaker.<\/p>\n
“That in itself has been one of my biggest achievements, making it to that arena as a Polynesian half,” Luai said. <\/p>\n
“Hopefully I have motivated other Poly halves to make it to that sort of arena one day. I’m just trying to be a pillar and set the way for the next.”<\/p>\n
Luai is confident there will be more Polynesian halves that soon follow him into Origin.<\/p>\n
Beyond Talagi, he has taken a keen interest in Tonga half Isaiya Katoa, who came through Penrith’s system and was brought into NSW State of Origin camp this year.<\/p>\n
Samoa also have Kiwi-born Chanel Harris-Tavita as a play-making utility off their bench, while Luai’s Wests Tigers teammate Latu Fainu is viewed as a future Tongan talent.<\/p>\n
“It’s going to happen naturally, because look at the percentages now of how many Polynesians there are in the league,” Luai said. <\/p>\n
“Polys love this game, look at the turn outs, that’s where the heart of the game is at the moment. <\/p>\n
“People are talking about growing the game, we need more Poly games on the big stage.”<\/p>\n
A situation Talagi believes the Pacific Islands have Luai to thank for.<\/p>\n
“Jarome has been able to pave the way and now we’ve got so many younger boys coming through,” he said. <\/p>\n
“Having him is so good. Not just for me to play with and only just for this little island, but for the whole of rugby league. <\/p>\n
“For us to be able to go up against the Kiwis and Australia, it’s so good. And he’s been such a big part of that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jarome Luai has revealed how a desire to be a trailblazer for young Polynesian halves has been the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,158,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-267669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nrl","11":"tag-rugby","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267669","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=267669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}