The Samoa Rugby Union squad, also known as Manu Samoa, have returned to Surrey Sports Park for a third consecutive year as part of their training preparations for their autumn tour of the Northern Hemisphere. Manu Samoa signifies the men’s representative side of Samoa in rugby union and they get their name Manu Samoa in honour of a famous Samoan warrior.
The squad are currently at the Sports Park for a week-long training camp, which includes grass pitch training, strength and conditioning and swimming pool recovery sessions before moving on to play two international matches. They head to Italy for a game on Saturday 8 November before returning to face Stuart Lancaster’s England on Saturday 22 November at nearby Twickenham.
Surrey Sports Park Chief Executive, Paul Blanchard, said: “We are delighted to welcome back the Manu Samoa squad to Surrey Sports Park and to host their training camp for what is set to be an exciting few weeks of international rugby. Samoa have now trained with us for three consecutive autumns and we are pleased to have built up such a strong relationship and continue to support them as a training venue.”
Manu Samoa have featured in every Rugby World Cup since 1991, getting to the quarter-final stages that year, as well as four years later in 1995. With the 2015 Rugby World Cup being hosted in England, Samoa will be hoping to acclimatise themselves to our conditions in preparation for next years’ competition. Samoa have been drawn in Pool B alongside South Africa, Scotland, Japan and USA and will feel relatively confident in qualifying from that group if they can perform to the best of their ability.
The University of Surrey’s Sports Park has a traditional link with rugby union teams as it is the permanent training base for Premiership side Harlequins, as well as being named a Team Base for Italy and Ireland for next year’s Rugby World Cup 2015.
James Martin