Samoa at the Rugby League World Cup

About Samoa in rugby league

Toa Samoa ("Samoan Warriors") produced the standout story of the 2021/2022 World Cup, beating Tonga 20-18 in the quarter-final and then stunning England 27-26 in golden point in the semi-final — a result BBC Sport called one of the tournament's great shocks — to reach their first ever World Cup final, where they lost to Australia 30-10. Samoa competed under the name Western Samoa at their first three World Cups (1995-2000) before the country's official name change in 1997 was reflected in the team's rebrand. The 2022 final run was fuelled heavily by NRL-contracted stars with Samoan heritage choosing international duty for Samoa over Australia or New Zealand, part of the same wider Pacific player-eligibility shift that has also strengthened Tonga and Fiji over the same period. Long before their 2022 final run, Samoa had already built a reputation for producing NRL talent well out of proportion to their population, and the national side now regularly ranks inside the world's top five, sitting 4th in the IRL World Rankings as the sport heads toward the 2026 tournament. Samoa's pre-match ritual, the siva tau war dance, has become as familiar a sight to modern rugby league crowds as New Zealand's haka, and the team's official colours — blue, red and white, matching the national flag — have stayed largely constant across both the Western Samoa and Samoa eras of the jersey design.

Sources

• England 26-27 Samoa — BBC Sport
• Samoa national rugby league team — Wikipedia