Headline grabbing prop Terrell May left Headingley declining to comment on his contract situation, but Samoa coach Ben Gardiner paid tribute to the 25-year-old's mental toughness in the face of "adversity".
"Nah, I'm not talking bra," May said as he walked past a clutch of reporters after England's 34-16 Second Test win, which came just two days after reports that Sydney Roosters had invited the Samoan prop to look elsewhere for 2025.
Having said on Thursday he was unaware of the affair, Samoa coach Ben Gardiner was happy to defend May at the post-match media conference, while also expanding on why the Siva Tau had been altered from the first Test and revealing the nature of an injury to Penrith's Izack Tago, who did not play in Leeds.
"He came out, he played really well today," said Gardiner of May. "He played big minutes under a fair bit of adversity from the last week.
"You deal with something like that on the other side of the world, it's a fair challenge for a young bloke to deal with - especially when he's got his family back home.
"I thought he went out there today and he did exactly what he should have done which is play his best and put his best foot forward.
"I think that's a real testament to his character and a real testament to his upbringing and shows that he's the type of guy that can deal with .... things in his life happening, and show resilience to bounce back in the best possible way which is perform on the footy field which is ultimately what he's here to do."
The Siva Tau started further back before kick-off and the Samoans, while advancing, got no-where near the face-to-face confrontation of six days previously in Wigan.
The Samoan Siva Tau at Headingly
"It was still intense, we went after it the way we wanted to go after it, we just made some adjustments on where we stood," said Gardiner.
"Last week we sort of expected that England would stand on the 40. Then we saw they saw they stood on the 50. We knew that they would stand on the 50 this week so we just moved ourselves back.
"I don't want to go into the full detail of why. It wouldn't be fair on some of the players."
A classic RTS try-saver
Penrith's Tago was on Thursday discounted from the 19-man squad due to an unspecified injury and replaced by his brother Jake, who scored a try.
Gardiner said of Izack: "He's just got a bit of a sore knee. It was bad enough that we didn't think he should risk it.
"Having conversations with our physios and our physios having conversation with the Panthers - our physio Andrew Leeds obviously works at the Panthers.
"It's probably an injury that would be a three or four-week injury at a club so we could have pushed it, but it just wasn't worth it from his point of view. It just would have put him at risk."
Newcastle forward Kai Pearce-Paul also missed out on England's match-day 17 due to a calf injury.
