Pacific

Sport: Manu Samoa manager says players not distracted

12:48 pm on 14 November 2014

The Manager of the Samoa rugby team Namulauulu Sami Leota says any player grievances have been put behind the team.

This week the International Rugby Board said players had written to the IRB threatening to strike, claiming the Samoa Rugby Union lacked financial transparency and suffered from general mismanagement

The IRB says after discussions, players withdrew a threat to boycott this month's test against England.

But Namulauulu says a meeting between senior players and management, a couple of weeks ago before the first match of their tour against Italy, had already eased the situation.

"Our objective is to make sure that the three test matches are proceeding. Before we left for Italy the players advised that the boycott had been lifted so by the time we got to Italy everything was behind us. Obviously the press release was not supposed to go out so at this stage our main objective and focus is to make sure that there is less disturbance from the team from the release and at this stage all preparation towards Canada is positive."

Namulauulu says the issue can't be blamed for the Samoan loss to Italy last week and the team is ready to take on Canada this weekend.

Photo: RNZ