'Like a family': How Samoa are connecting with huge NRL player pool

Cowboys forward Jeremiah Nanai is the first winner of a new Toa Samoa Player of the Week award as officials seek to engage more closely with the Pacific nation’s large pool of NRL talent and fan base.

According to 2024 NRL data, 113 of the 584 players in the Telstra Premiership, or 19.4%, are eligible to represent Samoa through birth or heritage, with either their parents or grandparents being born there.

Work is being done to grow the number of Samoan-born players, with representatives of the NRL, Asia Pacific Rugby League and ADF Sports conducting coaching and refereeing courses in Samoa, while also helping to improve governance.

Among the eligible players are a number who have represented Australia, such as Nanai, Tino Fa'asuamaleaui and Payne Haas, and officials hope that by lifting Samoa’s profile during the NRL season players will be more likely to commit.

“We are going to start announcing a Samoa Player of the Week to acknowledge our players and just get some talk going,” Samoa coach Ben Gardiner said.

“That’s going to be announced on social media, and we have already started [with Nanai winning the Round 1 award].

“It’s Multicultural Round in the NRL so it’s a good opportunity to talk about how proud the players are to represent their heritage and just to put Samoa on the map a bit more.

“I want our players to see that we are being active. We are doing a Player of the Week and we are going to announce a Team of the Month, so that we will come out six times a year.”

Nanai, who was the 2022 NRL rookie of the year, made his Test debut later that season for the Kangaroos at the World Cup in England but joined the Samoa camp in Townsville last October for the opening match of the Pacific Championships between the two nations.

Cowboys and Maroons team-mate Murray Taulagi was also a member of Australia’s 2022 World Cup squad but opted to play for Samoa last year, while Nanai was injured and did not play.

“We think that there is a bit of a window there for us, just based around what some guys have indicated to us,” Gardiner said.

“Jeremiah was in camp with us in Townsville and my understanding is that he would like to play for Samoa.

"You don’t know until the end of the year, and they commit, but Murray Taulagi did the same thing and he said, ‘I loved the camp and representing my people’.

“Ultimately, our aim after the Pacific Championships was that word would spread that our camp was a great a camp and players would want to play for us.”

Boom Bulldogs playmaker Karl Oloapu was also with the Toa Samoa squad when the players first went into camp ahead of the Pacific Championships but learned he had a serious neck injury which required surgery.

While the teenager is sidelined for the season as he recovers from the operation, which involved removing a disc, he is considered part of Samoa’s long term plans for the 2026 World Cup.

“Karl joined us in Redcliffe for three days and he was part of our camp, part of our introduction and part of our cultural work that we did,” Gardiner said.

“He got all of his team gear and we also presented him, as a team, with his jersey. We told him that we think he is part of our group going forward and he is going to play a key part in our team, so we would love you to commit to our nation.

“He said, ‘I would love to. This is what it is like to be part of a family’.

Oloapu watched Samoa’s stunning extra time defeat of England in the World Cup semi-final at home in Brisbane with his family and said that had inspired him to want to pull on the blue jersey of the Pacific nation.

“I was 16 years-old and hoping one day I can get to achieve a dream like that,” Oloapu said. “It was massive for kids growing up and being proud to rep 685 [Samoa’s country code].

“Mum and Dad were born in Samoa, Dad’s also Tongan and a bit German, as well, but I was bought up around Samoan culture.

“My culture is real important to me, it keeps me grounded, and I am grateful for the opportunity to go into the Samoan camp.

“Unfortunately, I found out about my injury while I was there, but Ben Gardiner has been massive for me.”