R.A.S. conquers Australian Barbarians

By Sarafina Sanerivi 30 September 2016, 12:00AM

The Rugby Academy of Samoa’s (R.A.S) U15 defeated the Australian Barbarians from Perth, 14-7, in a friendly match on Wednesday.  

The Australian Barbarian U15 is in the country for one and a half week.

The founder of R.A.S, Mase Mahonri Schwalger said the whole idea of the programme is to develop the skills and potentials of the young players of Samoa. 

“Our programmes are all about the development of rugby in Samoa,” said Schwalger. 

“These are the players who will feed our national teams in the future, and we want to start preparing them for the future.”

Moreover, Schwalger said that they are looking to bringing more overseas teams to Samoa. 

“What we are trying to do here is to bring in international teams so that our players would be able to grow in terms of experience. 

“These games will motivate them and will teach them a lot of skills and techniques on how to play rugby professionally. I believe that this is the right way to start training our boys to become great rugby players in the future.”

Giving the aspiring young rugby players the opportunity to start playing at a very young age is the whole purpose of the programme, said Schwalger.  

“Under this programme they are learning about the system of rugby, the different patterns and techniques of rugby we have nowadays.  

“This is also the age group targeted by overseas clubs,” he added. 

“These games help to build up the confidence of the players, so that when they grow up, everything will be easy for them. Confidence and self-esteem is one vital issue that these games cover.” 

“This is a great opportunity for them to show their potentials and put their passion on the field. They have been training for two months preparing for this game, and we also see this as an opportunity to expose their talents and potentials and also to learn and grow.”

Schwalger said he used his connections to get the Australian team to come to Samoa. 

Moreover, he also said that they are also thinking about taking one of their teams for a tour overseas. 

“But the main challenge is financial support. But that’s one of the things we are looking at right now.

“However, we will take a team to compete in Hawaii next year, and we will be taking the best team to represent us all.”

There is a huge potential in our U15 and U13 teams, said Schwalger.   

Moreover, he said that there is a huge potential in our kids in terms of rugby. 

“There is a huge potential in these kids,” he said.  

“You can see that they are motivated and dedicated to the trainings and playing. And this is a good thing for us. These kids will feed our U16 in the future and they feed on the elite, and those elite will feed the opportunities overseas.” 

By Sarafina Sanerivi 30 September 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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