{"id":30503,"date":"2025-09-01T10:56:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T14:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/samoa-defeat-in-womens-rugby-world-cup-celebration-and-call-for-investment\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T10:56:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T14:56:38","slug":"samoa-defeat-in-womens-rugby-world-cup-celebration-and-call-for-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/rugby\/samoa-defeat-in-womens-rugby-world-cup-celebration-and-call-for-investment\/","title":{"rendered":"Samoa: Defeat in Women’s Rugby World Cup, Celebration and Call for Investment"},"content":{"rendered":"The debate over whether the Women’s Rugby World Cup presents a problem of unequal scores is complex. Although we have witnessed attendance records, full stadiums, and the emergence of new stars, we have also seen a series of results with very wide scores.\n\nAfter England’s 92-3 victory over Samoa, the question resurfaced: What real benefit do both teams get from a match like this?\n\nFor England, it was a “lose-lose” situation. Winning by an overwhelming difference was expected, but struggling for victory would have generated criticism. For Samoa, who received 14 tries, the predictable result materialized.\n\nWhat comes next after such a heavy defeat?\n\nFor the “Red Roses”, this victory gave coach John Mitchell a relief in the selection before facing Australia, as well as in the knockout stages, where they are expected to be challenged for the first time.\n\n
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Samoa celebra y es ovacionada despu\u00e9s de anotar sus primeros puntos del torneo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nHowever, seeing Samoa walk the field at the end of the match, soaking up the applause, with ear-to-ear smiles and tears, was to witness a group of players who had already achieved so much by reaching the World Cup.\n\nThey are a team of amateur players, many of whom had to take unpaid leave to participate in this competition. Among them are six mothers, who left their families behind to face the best players in the world. There are property managers, teachers, and air traffic controllers. Then, coach Ramsey Tomokino, an IT manager, was heard pausing during his post-match conference to control his emotions as he relived the experience of seeing his team applauded as they got off the bus upon arriving in Northampton before the match.\n\n

“Our girls deserve it so much,” said Tomokino.<\/p>Ramsey Tomokino<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n

“So yes, that excited me a little because we had never had that, we had never had the opportunity to play in front of 13,000 people. That contributes to what we are”.<\/p>Ramsey Tomokino<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nWhile coach Ramsey was speaking, captain Sui Pauaraisa also felt overwhelmed by emotion. Try telling them this had no meaning.\n\nThe reality is that this World Cup would always have a series of uneven matches. Samoa’s motto for the week was “Mission: Impossible” in a World Cup where there are only three teams capable of winning the tournament. England has won 29 games in a row. Therefore, when you have Samoa, who did not face a top-tier opponent before the tournament, preparing to face England with vast resources, with 32 professional players to choose from, this is the reality.\n\nAs Mitchell said during the week, “those countries have to start somewhere”.\n\nThe key question, however, is what happens next? Because there’s no point in giving Samoa this taste of the World Cup and then sending them back to the sea with the other teams to swim until the next global competition.\n\nTherefore, what is needed, for this World Cup to truly be a springboard for the game, is more investment, more competitive matches, continuous access to better coaches, and less self-interest.\n\n

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Megan Jones destac\u00f3 nuevamente para Inglaterra con dos tries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

“We have neighboring countries that don’t want to help us,” Tomokino said during the week.<\/p>Ramsey Tomokino<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nAdded after that match: “We didn’t play enough matches before the World Cup and we knew it. I don’t want to take away merit from our girls. We know the result and I know people have been talking about whether it’s good for the game or not. But you know, what’s good for the game is that we are here and we can improve.”\n\nSustained attention is the way to go. The impact of uneven matches is usually short-term. These results are largely a small thread in a larger tapestry of a tournament; the matches you remember for the records rather than the legacy.\n\nBut for those involved and on the wrong side of the scoreboard, these matches mean everything. We saw it after the match at Franklin’s Gardens. These matches are the justification for the effort and existence within rugby.\n\n

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Denise Aiolupotea fue una de varias jugadoras que intercambiaron camisetas despu\u00e9s del partido en se\u00f1al de unidad.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

“World Rugby gives us great support, but we need more backing and more opportunities,” said Tomokino. “We don’t have days to play.”<\/p>Ramsey Tomokino<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nBut to make progress, they need more days like this.\n\nSamoa wanted a try against England. They didn’t get it. But they got their first points of the World Cup when Harmony Vatau scored her penalty in the second half. The unselected players next to the press room celebrated widely, as did the group of Samoan family and friends in front of us.\n\nThen they cheered even louder when Emma Sing missed a restart. But the try they so desired escaped them. They will face England again in the future, and they will go for that try again.\n\nBut you expect that when they meet, we will see some professional players on the Samoa team. And the margin between the teams will be smaller.\n\nThat would be legacy and progress.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The debate over whether the Women’s Rugby World Cup presents a problem of unequal scores is complex. Although we have witnessed attendance records, full stadiums, and the emergence of new stars, we have also seen a series of results with very wide scores. After England’s 92-3 victory over Samoa, the question resurfaced: What real benefit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[509,8149,518,7746],"class_list":{"0":"post-30503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-england","9":"tag-one-sided","10":"tag-rugby-world-cup","11":"tag-samoa"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}