You only need to see Johnny Leota's massive hit on George Ford to know that England vs Samoa was played at full throttle. Despite that, the teams dusted themselves down and joined together at the end of the game for a brilliant show of solidarity. We can't say we entirely agree with George Hook's idea of what makes rugby the greatest game on earth, however, this is certainly a better argument for that title.
The Samoan players have been in a tense stand-off with the Samoan Rugby Union in recent months (and years) which has come to a head in the past few weeks with threats by the players to boycott Saturday's game being met with derision by the country's prime minister (and chairman of the SRU) Tuilaepa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi.
The players have had a number of grievances ahead of the game "including the transparency and direction of significant sums of money within the union, travel and scheduling arrangements, and the fact that team selection has previously been revealed first on social media before an internal announcement." (via the Guardian)
The response from Sa'ilele and the union has been a flat 'put up or shut up' and while they may be at odds with their union for some time to come, the rugby fraternity is certainly behind them as shown by the joint huddle seen at the end of today's game.
