The Samoa national rugby union team represents Samoa in men's international rugby union competitions. They are governed by Samoa Rugby Union and also known as "Manu Samoa", which is thought to derive from the name of a Samoan warrior. They perform a traditional Samoan challenge called the siva tau before each game. Samoa Rugby Union were formerly members of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance (PIRA) along with Fiji and Tonga.We quit: SRU Samoa Observer
Rugby was introduced to Samoa in the 1890s but a governing body was not formed for some years, and neither was a club competition organised until after World War I. The first international was played as Western Samoa against Fiji in August 1924. Along with Tonga, these nations would meet regularly and eventually contest competitions such as the Pacific Tri-Nations – with Western Samoa winning the first of these. From 1924 to 1997 Samoa was known as Western Samoa.
Samoa have been to every Rugby World Cup since the 1991 tournament. That tournament, along with the 1995 competition, saw them make the quarterfinals. Under their new coach, former New Zealand and Samoan international player Michael Jones, Samoa competed in the 2007 Rugby World Cup. However, Samoa had a dismal World Cup campaign, winning only one match and finishing fourth in their group. Samoa showed an improved performance at the 2011 Rugby World Cup, winning two matches by comfortable margins, and losing close matches to South Africa and Wales.
History The history of Samoan rugby is filled with provably untrue myths and legends. Among them are that the Marist Brothers brought rugby to Western Samoa in 1924 and The Western Samoa Rugby Football Union was formed in 1924. Another is that a large tree was growing in the middle of the Apia Park pitch when Samoa played its first test in 1924.
The man who brought rugby to Samoa was a New Zealand surveyor, Norman Macdonald, who arrived in the country in 1892. He organised games on an ad-hoc basis, often against crews from visiting ships. Native Samoans were encouraged to play right from the start, and did so. During the German colonial era these games still happened on an irregular basis, but the arrival of New Zealand troops in the early stages of World War I meant rugby wasn't far behind.
The first match for which a score has been preserved was played in 1918 between the Garrison and a Home XV, which the soldiers won 13-6. Club rugby began in 1923 when four clubs - Barbarians, Nomads, Rovers and United - contested the first championship. Matches were played at Pilot Point, and that ground did have a tree inside the playing area; the newspaper reports often mentioned it. By the end of that season development work was beginning at Apia Park; the ground was levelled and a football pitch was prepared, cleared of all weeds and made up to international size.
On 18 August 1924, Western Samoa played its first international against Fiji in the capital Apia, the visitors winning 6–0. The match was played at 7am to allow the Samoans time to get to work afterwards and the ship taking the Fijian team to Tonga to make its sailing time. The return match, a month later, was won 9–3 by Samoa.
The Apia Rugby Union was formed in 1927, with eight clubs, and affiliated to the New Zealand Rugby Union that year. The Western Samoa Rugby Union wasn't formed as the governing body until 1958.
Club rugby changed formats in 1936, becoming a mercantile competition with business house teams replacing the village sides. This carried on until 1940, when the game closed down during World War II. It was resumed in 1946 and had another brief hiatus until a full club competition was played in 1953; this has run uninterrupted since.
In 1956 Western Samoa visited both Pacific Island neighbors Fiji and Tonga, but had to wait a further 20 years before a tour of New Zealand took place. The Samoans won one of eight matches on that 1956 tour.
The traditional tri-series between Tonga, Fiji and Western Samoa was established in 1982 with Western Samoa winning the first tournament. Wales visited Western Samoa and won the test 32–16 at Apia. The tour led to a return visit to Wales which brought Western Samoa out of International limbo, although Western Samoa were not invited to the first Rugby World Cup in 1987.
The following year a 14-match tour of Europe took place before a World Cup elimination series in Tokyo, which gave Western Samoa a place in the 1991 Rugby World Cup in Britain. They made a huge impact. After sweeping aside Wales 16–13 in Cardiff and defeating Argentina 35–12, and narrowly losing 3–9 to eventual champions Australia in their pool match, Western Samoa, a country with a population of 160,000, found itself in the quarterfinals against Scotland at Murrayfield. The Scots won comfortably 28–6, but the Samoans were clearly the personality team of the tournament. One Welsh fan ruefully remarked after Wales's defeat, "It's a good job we weren't playing all of Samoa."
Over the next two years, the side had a number of notable wins. The most outstanding achievements were in Sevens where it won the 1993 Hong Kong and 1992 Middlesex Sevens. The 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa proved that the team belonged in top company. They again reached the quarterfinals after wins over Argentina and Italy, but were beaten 42–14 by the eventual winners South Africa. After the Cup, Manu Samoa made a 13-match tour of England and Scotland, drawing 15–15 with the Scots and going down 27–9 to England.
With the advent of professional rugby in 1995 it was vital for Manu Samoa to develop a new administrative structure. This was made possible with Fay Richwhite and the Western Samoan Rugby Union joining forces to form Manu Samoa Rugby Limited. Fay Richwhite invested $5 million from 1995 to 2004 into Samoan rugby.
Samoa emerged from the 1999 World Cup with its honor intact after another shock 38–31 victory over host nation Wales in the pool stages. They again lost out to Scotland in the quarterfinal play-off.
Manu Samoa qualified for the 2003 World Cup with a 17–16 loss against Fiji, Earl Va'a missing an injury-time penalty. They recovered to beat Tonga both home and away and avenged that Fijian defeat with a 22–12 win in Nadi. They ultimately had to settle for second place in the round robin, behind Fiji on points difference, and a place in the tougher of the two Rugby World Cup 2003 pools alongside automatic qualifiers England and South Africa. In one of the games of the tournament, they led eventual champions England for most of the game before losing 35–22.
Samoa qualified for the 2011 World Cup after beating Papua New Guinea 73–12 in Port Moresby on 18 July 2009. They won 188–19 on aggregate over two matches against Papua New Guinea, having won 115–7 at Apia Park the previous week.
Samoa began their 2011 World Cup campaign preparation with a flying start, after registering an upset against No.2 ranked Australia with a four-try-to-two win of 32–23.Samoa shock Australia with 32–23 win in Sydney BBC Sport, 17 July 2011
In November 2017, Samoa's prime minister and SRU chairman Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi announced that the organisation was bankrupt, although those claims were denied by world governing body World Rugby.
Overall record
Below is a table of the representative rugby matches played by a Samoa national XV at test level up until 18 July 2026, updated after match with .
Opponent Played Won Lost Drawn Win % For Aga Diff 5 3 2 0 % 121 101 +20 6 1 5 0 % 73 238 −165 1 1 0 0 % 31 26 +5 1 0 1 0 0% 24 27 −3 2 1 0 1 % 50 21 +29 1 1 0 0 % 48 10 +38 6 6 0 0 % 169 103 +66 3 1 1 1 % 87 73 +14 3 3 0 0 % 102 31 +71 9 0 9 0 0% 131 310 −179 57 21 33 3 % 994 1,173 −179 3 0 3 0 0% 20 58 −38 4 0 4 0 0% 49 156 −107 7 2 4 1 % 147 143 +4 2 2 0 0 % 108 43 +65 1 1 0 0 % 66 19 +47 8 1 7 0 % 121 273 −152 9 6 3 0 % 225 183 +42 19 12 7 0 % 574 410 +164 1 1 0 0 % 74 7 +67 3 3 0 0 % 115 33 +82 1 1 0 0 % 28 6 +22 7 0 7 0 0% 72 411 −339 2 2 0 0 % 188 19 +169 4 1 3 0 % 96 87 +9 1 1 0 0 % 34 9 +25 13 1 11 1 % 205 373 −168 9 0 9 0 0% 99 431 −332 2 2 0 0 % 62 40 +22 1 1 0 0 % 33 11 +22 71 39 28 4 % 1,350 1,075 +275 9 6 3 0 % 187 170 +17 1 1 0 0 % 60 13 +47 10 4 6 0 % 180 235 −55 1 1 0 0 % 54 9 +45 Total 283 126 146 11 % 5,977 6,327 −350
World Cup record
In one of the scenes of the feature film, Invictus, Western Samoa can be seen playing South Africa in the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
Pacific Nations Cup
Samoa previously competed in the Pacific Tri-Nations winning 11 tournaments. The Pacific Nations Cup replaced the Tri-Nations tournament in 2006. Samoa have won four tournaments. Tournament Won Drawn Lost Samoa finish 2006 202 2nd / 5 2007 302 3rd / 6 2008 203 3rd / 6 2009 202 3rd / 5 2010 201 1st / 4 2011 102 3rd / 4 2012 300 1st / 4 2013 DNP 2014 110 1st / 3 2015 211 2nd / 6 2016 101 2nd / 3 2017 002 3rd / 3 2018 002 4th / 4 2019 102 4th / 6 2022 300 1st / 4 2024 202 3rd / 6 2025 0 0 3 6th / 6 Total 25 2 24 4 titles
Wins against Tier 1 nations Samoa have recorded 17 wins against tier 1 nations. In addition, Samoa drew with Scotland 15–15 on the 18 November 1995 at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Players Current squad On 4 June, Samoa named a 32-player squad ahead of the 2026 World Rugby Nations Cup Americas-Pacific Series.Samoa name squad with two huge PREM omissions but ex-All Black gets call
Caps updated: 18 July 2026 (after Samoa v Romania)
Head coach: Tusi Pisi
Player records
Most caps
#PlayerPosSpanMatStartSubWonLostDraw% 1 Brian Lima Wing 1991–2007 65 62 3 32 31 2 50.76 2 To'o Vaega Centre 1986–2001 61 56 5 35 25 1 58.19 3 Semo Sititi Flanker 1999–2009 59 50 9 33 26 0 55.93 4 Census Johnston Prop 2005–2017 57 43 14 25 31 1 44.73 5 David Lemi Wing 2004–2017 54 46 8 21 31 2 40.74 6 Jack Lam Flanker 2013-2022 44 39 5 14 28 2 41.66 Zak Taulafo Prop 2009–2016 44 39 5 20 22 2 47.72 8 Opeta Palepoi Lock 1998–2005 43 30 13 24 19 0 55.81 9 Tusi Pisi Fly-half 2011–2019 42 38 4 15 26 1 36.90 Ofisa Treviranus Flanker 2009–2018 42 32 15 17 24 1 41.66
Last updated: United States vs Samoa, 21 September 2024. Statistics include officially capped matches only.
Most tries
#PlayerPosSpanMatStartSubPtsTries 1 Brian Lima Wing 1991–2007 65 62 3 140 29 2 Alesana Tuilagi Wing 2002–2015 37 35 2 90 18 3 Semo Sititi Flanker 1999–2009 59 50 9 85 17 4 Afato So'oalo Wing 1996–2001 20 18 2 80 16 5 Lome Fa'atau Wing 2000–2007 35 31 4 70 14 To'o Vaega Centre 1986–2001 61 56 5 79 14 7 David Lemi Wing 2004–2017 54 46 8 65 13 8 Ed Fidow Wing 2018–2023 21 16 5 60 12 9 George Leaupepe Centre 1995–2005 26 23 3 50 10 10 Tupo Fa'amasino Centre 1988–1996 20 20 0 52 9 Alapati Leiua Centre 2013–2024 36 33 3 45 9 Elvis Seveali'i Centre 2000–2007 20 16 4 45 9
Last updated: United States vs Samoa, 21 September 2024. Statistics include officially capped matches only.
Most points
#PlayerPosSpanMatPtsTriesConvPensDrop 1 Tusi Pisi Fly-half 2011–2019 42 245 2 29 57 2 2 Earl Va'a Fly-half 1996–2003 28 174 3 33 31 0 3 Silao Leaega Fullback 1997–2002 19 145 2 21 31 0 4 Brian Lima Wing 1991–2007 65 140 29 0 0 0 5 Darren Kellett Fly-half 1993–1995 13 137 2 14 31 2 6 Roger Warren Fly-half 2004–2008 12 119 0 13 29 27 D'Angelo Leuila Fly-half 2016- 29 106 2 21 16 2 Gavin Williams Centre 2007–2010 16 106 5 18 15 0 9 Tanner Vili Fly-half 1999–2006 31 99 4 20 13 0 10 Alesana Tuilagi Wing 2002–2015 37 90 18 0 0 0
Last updated: United States vs Samoa, 21 September 2024. Statistics include officially capped matches only.
Most matches as captain