Monday 13th February – 14:42pm – It’s chucking it down outside, so i’m sat in the Hostel lounge area, in the middle of Queenstown – NZ, watching Independence Day on VCR …

The last few weeks in Samoa flew by. One minute we were super bored and wishing the days away, the next we were packing our bags and being made to dance in-front of the youth group, in what was described as a traditional Samoan ‘finale’.

As we moved into the last 2 weeks, the training sessions became repetitive and Ash and I became frustrated. The language barrier was tough from the start, but without Tavita I lost confidence and we ended up having extended games of touch rather than full training sessions. They were still valuable, and we were able to choose a good starting 9, with subs, for the tournament.

The bar-work slowly dried up and became non-existent. As the seasons changed, the amount of guests at Matareva dropped, so we had next to nothing to do in the days. We would wake up for breakfast, then sit around and wait for things to do, or go back to bed for a nap until lunch time. In the afternoons we would watch TV, go for a swim, go for a walk or just sit around waiting for 5pm to come along to go training. It sounds ideal I know, but got super boring. The bites on my feet were now severely infected, and it hurt to walk let alone to put boots on and run. 

Looking back now, I wish I had booked to stay in Samoa for 4 weeks. As pointless as it sounds, the 5th week was torture. Just boredom upon boredom, I felt myself hating the place. I’ve no idea how Emma is going to stay there for 3 months. She arrived a few weeks before we left, and is booked on to stay for 12 weeks as an office and admin helper. Its going to be tough.

On Friday 10th February, the day before the tournament, Tavita picked up all the players and brought them to the resort. We had a meal, a meeting, and watched last years State of Origin NRL game on the laptop. It was a nice night, but difficult to enjoy when you cant understand anything that anyone was saying. Either way it was good fun, and the next morning we all jumped into the various forms of transport and headed for the rugby tournament in Apia.

The 9’s tournament was going to be held at the Samoa Marist ground; a well kept pitch in the middle of the capital city. It felt like a bit of an oxymoron for me, a pristine pitch situated in the middle of a poverty stricken country, surrounded by tiny houses filled with several families who could barely afford to eat, let alone play rugby. There were stray dogs all along the walls of the carpark entrance, and obviously a shed load of staring Samoans who just couldn’t stop looking and shouting at the only blonde haired blue eyed guy in the whole of Samoa…

The tournament kicked off at 11am, with a round robin style of play. The least said about our performances the better to be honest. The other teams were bigger, faster, and better drilled. We had little to no game plan, and got bullied out of the big games. We collectively scored 1 try in the first two games, and conceded 6. The third game we managed to turn a leaf slightly, as the boys started playing with some heart. We scored 2 first half tries, and actually had a chance until the last 2 minutes when our fitness faltered. Despite losing, we actually put a performance together and I was proud of the boys.

We ended up coming dead last in the standings, which hurt a little. My first coaching experience and we lost every game. How embarrassing…. However – we had fun, and it certainly was an experience. I was able to play my first rugby league fixtures, and grow my rugby playing and coaching CV, I just wont mention the eventual result…

We left the tournament and headed back to the resort for some food, and to say our final goodbyes. Our flight was at 10pm that evening, so we barely had time to say goodbye and eat before we were heading out again. After food, Tavita, the team, and another village chief in charge of helping the youth group had a meeting with the team, and said a massive thank you to Ash and I. They then had a sing-song, and invited us up to dance. It was an interesting experience, and we were helped by the Police man (I don’t know his name) and Yoa who got up and danced with us. We then said our goodbyes to all the players, and they boarded the truck home. They were all really kind, and said a few words in the little english they could speak.

I’ll always remember and miss a couple; Shaun, Yoa, ‘The other dummy half’, ‘The younger guy’, ‘Shaun’s mate’ and of course Fale. Fale is Tavita’s brother, and was an unreal player. He has just moved to Christchurch to accept a rugby league contract for the Canterbury Bulldogs. He had to leave the day before the tournament, which sucked but I’m super happy for him. Hopefully he will make it as a pro. 

Tavita, Fiauu, Walter and Bill came with us to the airport to drop us off, and it was actually a slightly emotional send off. Tavita had been drinking so didn’t stop thanking us, and the boys were running around crazy. Bill said he loved us, and would miss us, which nearly made me cry. It was a wonderful send off, and despite my bitten and broken body, I was suddenly going to miss the place.

On the flight I was stuck in-between one of the largest islander guys I had ever seen, and another man, easily above 6 foot 3 for the entire plane journey. By the time we landed my body was aching and ruined. We arrived into Auckland airport for 02:30am, where we were met by Ash’s parents who had brought me my large travelling bag. 

After a quick catch up with the Townsend’s, I left them to drive back to their hotel, and went for a nap in the departure lounge. My flight to Queenstown was leaving in 7 hours, so I had time for a sleep on an airport bench.