Sport: Pacific rugby nations look to avoid tour whitewash

Paid a pittance and winless for 12 months but Samoa insist their motivation is as strong as ever going into the final rugby test of the year against England at Twickenham.

The Manu last tasted success against Canada a year ago and have since lost six tests in succession.

Technical advisor John Schuster admits it won't get any easier against the Six Nations champions who have only lost once in their past 23 internationals.

"It's every players dream really to play against the best in the world and these opportunities don't come around too often in one's career. That message was well and truly drilled into them and we're hopeful it makes some kind of difference," he said.

England are coming off a 30-6 victory over Australia while Samoa slumped to a four point defeat in Romania.

Schuster said there's no doubting the task at hand for the visitors.

"England will be extremely difficult. They're playing really good footy - they're almost a complete package, so to speak, but we're quietly going about our business. We're not there to make up the numbers, so to speak, we're just preparing ourselves for a much improved performance."

Tonga

Tonga coach Toutai Kefu is after a response from his team in their final tour match in Romania.

The 'Ikale Tahi were thrashed 39-6 by Japan last weekend, with Kefu slamming his players for their poor attitude and lack of urgency.

He watched Romania's victory over Samoa last weekend and said the game could have gone either way.

"The one thing we took out of it and which we already knew is that the Romania scrum is still very strong. They scrummed for a lot of penalties and got those penalties."

"I think they had about 16 lineouts and 11 of those lineouts they mauled off - one was a 90 metre maul - so those are two strengths that we will be focusing on, in terms of our defence, but most of it's going to be about what we do on the field," he said.

Tonga were pipped by one point on their first trip to Bucharest four years ago but squared the ledger prior to the 2015 World Cup

Kefu said they are in no position to take any game lightly.

"When we get together it's all about us and what we can do and how we can do it, so that's going to be the order of the day again. Look they're a very good side, they've been consistently getting better over the years and our last two games against them have been very very close so under no illusions are we going to take them lightly."

"We're going in to try and win this but I think if we do play to our ability and with a little bit of tempo I think it will help going towards a positive result for us," he said

Fiji

Meanwhile the Flying Fijians are hoping to sign off their time abroad with a strong performance against Canada.

The Pacific Nations Cup holders opened their tour with defeat in Italy and pushed Ireland all the way in a 23-20 defeat in Dublin last weekend and coach John McKee said they need to take their opportunities.

"It's really important for the individuals involved and the team collectively to finish this tour on a good note and I'm confident that if we play well we can get a good result butcertainly, playing well is what's important for us. I think we made progression from game one to game two and we need to maintain that standard now for the third game," he said.

Canada conceded 50 points in heavy defeats against the Maori All Blacks and Georgia before beating Spain 37-27 in Madrid.

McKee expects them to stick to their strengths and play a direct game.

"They really work hard to win the gain-line, they're pretty physical the way they go about things."

"Their halfback is a bit of a key player for him and we will have to watch him closely but if we can impose ourselves on the game and use our dangerous players out wide, as we made some good inroads against Ireland if we can do that against Canada I think we can get a good result," he said.