Vui: We do not want England handouts
The Samoa captain, Chris Vui, is adamant his team never wanted handouts after England’s players decided against donating part of their match fee towards their opponents tomorrow.
England prop Mako Vunipola suggested giving a portion of their £22,000 individual fee to Samoa’s players, who will earn £650 from the game at Twickenham. The idea initially received support within the squad. However, the senior player group decided that a donation could have inflamed a delicate stand-off between the Samoa Rugby Union and World Rugby.
Dan Cole, the tighthead prop, also suggested that making a donation could have led to questions about the integrity of the fixture. With the SRU chairman and country’s prime minister declaring the union bankrupt, there is a fundraising campaign on behalf of Samoa’s players.
Despite their dire financial situation, Vui, a second row who is one of four Bristol players starting against England, says that they are seeking neither pity nor charity. “It’s important we don’t get that because we are here to play rugby,” Vui said. “We don’t want the Dan Coles to have to help. I think they [England] care. We are solely here to play. It’s not their problem to have to give us money. It’s not their fault at all.
“They get a good pay package and that’s a reward for England rugby players. We play rugby and we are two different organisations. There is a big gap but hopefully that gap between pay packets will even out in the future.”
Bristol’s contingent is completed by centre Alapati Leiua, wing David Lemi and No 8 Jack Lam while there are further Premiership representatives in the form of Northampton full-back Ahsee Tuala and Sale flanker TJ Ioane.
There are three changes from the side that lost 17-13 to Romania last week, their sixth straight loss in 2017, and Vui is determined to finish a difficult year on a high. “Against England, one of the best teams in the world, it will be huge to get a good performance,” Vui said. “It is a chance to bring pride back to that blue jersey.
“We will try to be physical. We will just play our own game and play rugby a bit Samoan-style. They are a really structured team and in the last few games they have scored off the set-piece. It would be good if we can disrupt their set-piece and kill the speed of their rucks.”
There was one piece of good news this week as Blue Sky, a telephone company, committed £1.3 million over four years to sponsor Samoa.
If they beat England on Saturday, the head coach Titimaea Tafua says there will be more backers knocking on their door. “For sure,” Tafua said. “Our results are not that good so we are trying our best to get back there.
“We’ll struggle to get sponsors if the team is not good. If we perform and get results then the sponsors will come. We want to get back the winning culture to our team.”