This three-day adventure in Samoa was unique for the Queensland Reds from the moment the team bus left the airport and detoured to the home village of reserve hooker Richie Asiata.
Welcomes are never warmer or more personal than in this rugby-loving, family-orientated island in the South Pacific.
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There waiting with smiles aplenty were Asiata’s wider family. Young cousins, aunts, uncles, family friends and mum Vaeluaga had fresh coconuts at the ready to drink around a roadside banner “Richie’s Mum’s Village...Go Queensland Red.”
The stop at the tiny village of Fasito’outa on the island’s north-west coast said it all about how much Samoa has missed top rugby.
The island has not hosted a Test match since before the COVID pandemic struck in 2020 and no Super Rugby since the Reds played the Blues in 2017.
Ambushes often hide behind smiles in the Pacific yet the Reds galvanised for their most important victory of a mostly cold Super Rugby Pacific season.
The 40-28 win over Moana Pasifika on Friday will never get the praise it deserves. The humid heat was near 30 degrees, the crowd energy was like a transfusion for the home side whenever they scored and the giant thighs of gun centre Levi Aumua weren’t even the biggest in his run-and-stun team.
“It’s a great feeling but I thought I was going to have a heart attack in the final 10 minutes I was so tired in that heat,” non-stop No.8 Harry Wilson said.
The secret to this Reds victory was it not just being up to Wilson, halfback Tate McDermott, winger Jordan Petaia, flanker Fraser McReight and centre James O’Connor to orchestrate a win.
Unsung flanker Jake Upfield and lock Connor Vest proved they are Super Rugby players not blokes who wear that “just a club player” mantle.
Vest smashed up two early ball carries and operated in the middle of the field with all the grunt you want from a lock. He is putting on the field all he learnt in his season with Auckland late last year.
Upfield’s soft hands made him the Reds’ top lineout winner (six) in his debut as a starter.
Three months ago, he wasn’t even in the picture. He volunteered to hold tackle shields during off-season training.
When a succession of locks went down injured, he was a late call-up for the pre-season trial in Narrabri. He'd played cameos in all seven rounds before another late call-up to Samoa when Liam Wright broke his hand mid-week.
“If you’d told me in January, I’d be playing eight games for the Reds and starting in a game in Samoa I’d have called you crazy,” Upfield said.
“It was a great feeling to be part of this.”
He’s a Gunnedah product who has made his mark at the Bond University club. He is the son of Paul Upfield, who played rugby league in the 1980s and early ‘90s for Illawarra, St George and Balmain.
Likewise, two-try hooker Matt Faessler continues to build a reputation as a laser-accurate lineout thrower and busy low-to-the-ground hooker. Eddie Jones has certainly noticed because he was the next hooker into the Wallabies training squad for the Gold Coast camp this week when Dave Porecki pulled out through injury.
Prop Sef Fa’agase finally had the dominant scrummaging game that the Reds signed him for and winger Suliasi Vunivalu decided the course of the match with his 50m intercept try at the 35-minute mark.
“A match like this in front of friends and family in Samoa does have more meaning. It was an awesome occasion,” Fa’agase said of his extra motivation.
Asiata hadn’t been home to Samoa since 2014 while Petaia’s first visit since school days coincided with his 50th cap.
Behind the scenes, Petaia also had intensely personal reasons to perform. Because of COVID, many of his relatives in Samoa were able to attend the funeral of his late father Tielu in 2020.
“It was very special and emotional. I couldn’t believe it worked out that I played my 50th in Samoa,” said Petaia, who had more than 20 members of his broader family in the crowd at Apia Park.
The Queensland Rugby Union’s shrewd partnership with Alliance Airlines meant a special charter flight for the tour made it possible for 48 sponsors, donors, board members, supporters and their families to fly with the team.
They included former Reds prop Herman Hunt, a tour host and guest speaker at a match day luncheon.
He had tears in his eyes talking about the emotional connection between rugby and family and his first visit to Samoa since he was 10.
QRU chairman Brett Clark brought 100 mouthguards with him to give away to young Samoans at a training clinic after a week in which Queensland community coaches Kris Burton and Gaven Head had tutored 12 local coaches.
Of course, every youngster wanted a mouthguard in the blue of Samoa.
Unfortunately, post-match functions involving both teams have died a death since professional rugby rushed away from some of the staples that make the game what it is.
In Samoa, a poolside function for both teams after the match perfectly suited the historic occasion of Moana Pasifika’s first match in Apia.
While the Moana Pasifika squad harnesses Samoan, Fijian and Tongan talents, almost all are New Zealand-based.
That’s why it was so special that the one Samoan-based player had a blinder. The wonderfully-named Miracle Faiilagi scored two tries just metres away from the village he calls home.
Former Samoan Test lock Dan Leo, who got his start with the Reds in 2003, said the first Super Rugby Pacific match in Samoa was “massive for the region.”
“Just getting the first game staged, after the absence of professional rugby for so long, means a lot,” Leo said.
“You could also see how much it meant to the Reds players of Samoan heritage."
Leo wears another hat as choirmaster. Well, it’s an unofficial one that comes with his role as the QRU’s Pasifika Engagement Manager.
He had the Queensland squad practice, over several weeks, a Samoan song to thank their Samoan and Moana Pasifika hosts.
A quick “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi-oi-oi" just wasn’t going to cut it.
What bubbled out poolside as a joyous, united, harmonious Ua fa’afetai (song of appreciation) was better than anyone could have hoped.
“As a Samoan player in Test squads, we never had the money to do the flash team bonding activities of other sides but we could sing. It was one thing we could do for bonding and it is a big part of our culture,” Leo explained.
“I think the Reds boys sang the Samoan part of the song better than they did Waltzing Matilda.”
When the busses carrying the Reds supporters' group had first arrived in Apia, there was a smirk at the odd naming of the Loving and Caring Motel in town.
When the busses passed it again on the way home, there was far more acceptance that it is aptly named for the hospitality and authenticity of the Samoan people.
