Former Samoa rugby league international, Tony Puletua, has high hopes that more high-profile players will choose to represent their Pacific heritage.
Samoa sing the national anthem in their first 2008 Rugby League World Cup match against Tonga. Photo: © Photosport Ltd 2008 www.photosport.co.nz
Tonga have been celebrated for a revolutionary rise on the way to a number of historic victories over tier one nations, since a number of stars switched their allegiance to reach new heights at the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.
Penrith Panthers playmaker Jarome Luai, who will play in this weekend's NRL grand final, recently reaffirmed his commitment to Toa Samoa.
Puletua said he'd love to see more big names boost the Pacific nations.
Tony Puletua played 22 Tests for New Zealand over a ten year period before representing Samoa at the 2008 and 2013 World Cups. Photo: PHOTOSPORT www.photosport.co.nz
"I would love to see guys like Roger Tuivasa-Sheck play for Samoa, Dylan Brown from Parramatta, I would love to see Sonny Bill [Williams] play for Samoa. I would love to see all those guys currently representing New Zealand at some stage play for Samoa," he said.
"There's so many guys who are talked about representing New South Wales and Queensland, I would love to see those guys play and I hope they do have it as one of their goals to play for Samoa at some stage of their careers."
Tony Puletua played 22 Tests for New Zealand over a ten year period before representing Samoa at the 2008 and 2013 World Cups.
The former second-rower said it was a decision made by a number of Samoan players who were part of the Kiwi's squad, including Nigel Vagana and Ali Lauiti'iti.
"We got together and we spoke about maybe this is our time to cross over, to represent Samoa and to do something that's probably never been done before."
"[We hoped] to lay the path for future generation Samoan players to come through and want to represent Samoa, to choose Samoa as their number one country and that's what happened [at the time].
"So in 2007 I played my last Anzac Test for New Zealand and I made the switch to play for Samoa. Myself, Nigel Vagana, Ali Lauiti'iti, David Solomona and my brother Frank, we all switched over at the same time and we started playing for Samoa and then in 2008 a number of other big names joined us and so it sort of just rolled on from there."
Puletua said playing for Samoa was unlike any other experience he's had in his professional career of 18 years.
Tony Puletua celebrates with the crowd. Photo: © Photosport Ltd 2008 www.photosport.co.nz
"It was a feeling that I never ever felt before, like playing first grade, and I had never been so nervous in my life when we played Tonga in the first game of the World Cup in 2008," he explained.
"I was just so nervous and I was even more nervous because my mum and dad were putting so much pressure on me they kept saying 'son do you know how important this game is,' but it was a very special game."
"I always wanted to play for Samoa at some stage, whatever stage that was in my career, I always knew I wanted to play for Samoa before I finished playing footy...you think about so much more when you're playing for Samoa or playing for one of the Pacific nations."
Puletua is anticipating more Pacific players to follow Tonga's lead.
The Tongal Invitational XIII celebrate their win. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
"Tonga have been a great example of what can actually happen if all these Pacific Island players pledge their allegiance to their countries, to represent their Pacific nations."
"You can do something special like Tonga. They beat New Zealand, they've beaten Australia now and they're right up there with all the top nations in the world in terms of rugby league, so I would love to see that happen right across all Pacific Island nations and hopefully one day that happens."
