Samoa vs. Italy 2024
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@Tim wheres Murphy Taramai playing these days? thought he retired lol..also surprised to see Alapati Leiua in there too! he was a gun when he played Canes, then went all downhill when he left!.. otherwise not a bad team
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Looks like he plays for SHIMIZU KOTO BLUE SHARKS in Japan's third division.
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@BerhamporeNinja said in Samoa vs. Italy 2024:
@Tim wheres Murphy Taramai playing these days? thought he retired lol..also surprised to see Alapati Leiua in there too! he was a gun when he played Canes, then went all downhill when he left!.. otherwise not a bad team
He used to make big runs and break tackles for fun. I wondered what became of him….
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Now he plays club rugby for Ponsonby.
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https://www.rugbypass.com/news/ex-england-u20-fullback-matt-gallagher-set-for-italy-debut/
15 Matt GALLAGHER (Benetton Rugby, debut)
14 Louis LYNAGH (Benetton Rugby, 2 caps)
13 Juan Ignacio BREX (Benetton Rugby, 35 caps)
12 Tommaso MENONCELLO (Benetton Rugby, 17 caps)
11 Monty IOANE (Lyon, 30 caps)
10 Paolo GARBISI (Toulon, 36 caps)
9 Stephen VARNEY (Gloucester Rugby, 29 caps)
8 Ross VINTCENT (Exeter Chiefs, 4 caps)
7 Michele LAMARO (Benetton Rugby, 38 caps) – captain
6 Alessandro IZEKOR (Benetton Rugby, 2 caps)
5 Federico RUZZA (Benetton Rugby, 54 caps)
4 Niccolò CANNONE (Benetton Rugby, 41 caps)
3 Simone FERRARI (Benetton Rugby, 53 caps)
2 Gianmarco LUCCHESI (Benetton Rugby, 22 caps)
1 Danilo FISCHETTI (Zebre Parma, 41 caps)Replacements
16 Loris ZARANTONELLO (Castres, debut)
17 Mirco SPAGNOLO (Benetton Rugby, 5 caps)
18 Giosuè ZILOCCHI (Benetton Rugby, 21 caps)
19 Edoardo IACHIZZI (Benetton Rugby, 6 caps)
20 Manuel ZULIANI (Benetton Rugby, 21 caps)
21 Lorenzo CANNONE (Benetton Rugby, 19 caps)
22 Martin PAGE-RELO (Lyon, 8 caps)
23 Leonardo MARIN (Benetton Rugby, 9 caps) -
This is live on TVNZ One and TVNZ Plus at 3:55pm Friday -
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Just watched it now. How did that Samoa side beat a full strength Italy side haha. Half those Samoan players were barely NPC standard, a huge boilover imo.
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@African-Monkey with 100% Samoan pride, cheehoo
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I think it must be a bit like the Drua home games effect in super rugby.
I couldn’t recognise any names in the Samoa side.
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@DaGrubster There's a lot of guys in that side that do play for Moana Pasifika and others that played a bit at NPC level, but they weren't even regulars down at NPC level and a fair few of those Moana players aren't regulars for them either. So there are a fair few familiar faces to NZ viewers, but yeah, a lot if them ain't test level. It's a fairly weak Samoan line up, so this result is huge, and as for the heat factor, Italy were the ones camped on the Samoan try line for a lot of the 2nd half, and a lot of these Samoan players play in NZ anyway, unlike the Drua who are a proper Fiji based side made out of locals mostly.
I must say, Samoa's results against 6 nations opposition in the last 9 months or so has shown massive improvement. They could easily have won against Ireland and England and competed well against Argentina at the world cup as well to go with a big upset against Italy today.
It shows the benefits of having Moana Pasifika playing in a professional comp.
