New Zealand
Apia Test week has special Samoan vibe
ESPN Staff
July 6, 2015
New Zealand's Daniel Carter and Liam Messam are welcomed at Faleolo Airport, Apia, Samoa, July 6, 2015
New Zealand's Daniel Carter and Liam Messam are welcomed at Faleolo Airport © Getty Images
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The All Blacks last veered away from their usual rugby path eight months ago, when they played the United States in Chicago. They're doing something similar this week, having squeezed an extra Test against Samoa into their program.

The one-off Test, the All Blacks' first in the Pacific islands, is in Apia and the contrast couldn't be greater. Most obviously, a snow storm struck Chicago when the All Blacks trained at the 62,000-seat Soldier Field a day before kick-off. Two days out from another historic Test, at 8000-seat Apia Park, the mercury is topping 30C and the humidity is stifling. But the difference between the two games runs fundamentally deeper.

USA was a money spinner; the stated aim was to spread the gospel in a developing rugby nation but the reality was a blatant push into a lucrative market. Samoa is more about giving back. The Apia Test will barely break even for either nation, but rugby is embedded in the culture of both countries and All Blacks and countless other rugby players at all levels in New Zealand have a Samoan connection

The excitement and expectation levels in this welcoming city are palpable. Nearly everyone agrees it should have happened a long time ago.

The pace of life in the Pacific is slower than in Chicago, but there is an energy this week compared with the indifference of most US sports fans last November.

Flags of both nations decorate every street in downtown Apia. One sign reads "David versus Goliath" while another features life size cut-outs of respective captains Ofisa Treviranus and Richie McCaw. A hotel owner was desperate to know the make-up of the All Blacks team named hours earlier, while a visitor who flew in from Sydney expressed anguish when she learned that Malakai Fekitoa wouldn't be in New Zealand's backline.

Samoa lock Kane Thompson reckons the game has a different feel to any of his 31 Tests since 2007.

"It's a special sort of aura around this game, a little bit more than most," he told NZ Newswire. "Just having the No.1 team in the world come to Apia to play the Manu is great. There's a special link between us and the people are really keen to see the All Blacks here - in the flesh, at last."

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