NRL legend writes off Samoa as Mal Meninga reveals his masterplan for World Cup Final

[josie andrews]

Samoa have booked their place in the Rugby League World Cup Final with a Golden Point win over England at the Emirates on Saturday.

Samoa defied the odds to defeat England in semi-finals but beating the Kangaroos would be a totally different challenge.

NRL legend Glenn Lazarus has already written them off despite the quality of their NRL Grand Final winners like Stephen Crichton and Jarome Luai.

Samoa will be absolutely desperate to win it,” Lazarus said on SEN.

“I don’t think that they will beat Australia. I don’t think their defence is good enough.

“It’s great that they made the final and England will be ruing the opportunity. I think it will be a great game but I do think Australia will win.”

Lazarus played with Australia coach Mal Meninga who has revealed his plan to defeat Samoa using those NRL Grand Final winners’ teammates to understand how to defeat Matt Parish’s side.

“We’ll pick brains. Initially it’s about recovering and getting themselves ready for the battle that’s coming on Saturday,” Meninga told SEN.

“Then we’ll make sure we look at how we can improve our game from the team’s point of view. As the week goes on, we’ll look at Samoa and how well they’re going, and what are their strengths.”

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/nrl-lege ... nal-62299/

[the pieman]

Willie Poaching made a great point after the game on Saturday when asked about the game v Oz

"there were 8 of the Samoa team played in the NRL Grand Final, so they wont be phased by playing v Oz, and that they are playing at that intensitiy week in / week out"

another point made was that approx 40% of the NRL is made up on South Sea Island players, so no coincidence that Samoa, Tonga, PNG are performing so well internationally

[blindsideprop]

Australia will win in a canter,they were just so good against the kiwis and will improve even more.

[fozzieskem]

Australia will win in a canter,they were just so good against the kiwis and will improve even more.

I’ve said the same from their first game..NZ finally forced them into action and they responded well but it seems to me with so much more left in the tank.

[First Try Tickle]

Australia will win in a canter,they were just so good against the kiwis and will improve even more.

But were they so good against the Kiwi's ?

If weren't for the one boot offside, NZ would have scored the first try and if it wasn't for an obstruction by Addo Carr they would have had another.

The week before the same NZ side had struggled against Fuji.