THE MAKING OF TOA SAMOA: PART 3 – Taking a new Direction and Being in Control – Peter Paul

APIA, SAMOA – 27 DECEMBER 2022: With the vacuum left at the collapse of Super League, the local entity had to quickly reshape and refocus. Under Peter Paul as President, they revised the Constitution and changed the name to Rugby League Samoa (RLS) in 2007. They also launched what is the current Logo and rebuilt the respect and support both locally and internationally and became a member of the International Rugby League Federation.
This is the third in series of six articles on Rugby League Samoa’s 30 year history in celebration of Toa Samoa‘s 2022 World Cup phenomenal success.

PART 3: Taking a new direction and being in control – Peter Paul

By Lance Polu

Peter Paul was a founding Board member of the Western Samoa Rugby League Association in 1986 when Seiuli Paul Wallwork was President.

He comes from a sporting family as his father Peter Paul (senior) was a boxer and weightlifter and a longtime sports administrator that took Samoan sports to the Pacific Games, the Commonwealth and Olympics.

Others in the Rugby League Executive were Satini Epati, Cyril Curry, Lemalu Roy Slade, To’a Retzlaff who played league in New Zealand and sponsored the Telefoni Steelers in the local competition.

“I was introduced to rugby league by Don Odweyer. I didn’t play league but rugby union in college in New Zealand. So when Seiuli asked to come down to Apia Park and see, I just realized this was the game for Samoa,” said Paul of his initial involvement.

With the onset of Super League in 1995, names like Mel Meninga came to promote the sport. More importantly, they had cash.

“It was the first time we had some cash as money has always been a problem not only for rugby league but other sports in Samoa.”

Paul then went overseas to train as an airline pilot. He returned to Samoa in 2006 working for Polynesian Airlines. Rugby League was almost non-existent if not for only a few local clubs.

He got invited to a meeting and was elected President as many people were keen to revive League and get it back on its feet again. But it was very hard as he inherited a club with a cheque book in deficit.

“I really take my hat off to Fritz, (the General we call him) for really putting in a lot of time. We really operated out of his office – a little photograph shop he had and we used it as the office and a place to keep in contact with the players and started to get going again. His office is where we meet to discuss things.”

Despite the difficulties, timing was on Paul and his team as in 2006, Samoa was preparing to host the Pacific Games in 2007 and Rugby League was one of the sports and Frtiz Tuiavi’i was a member of the Games Board.

Getting respect and support again
“Our very first move was to regain the respect and credibility of the local association.”

Peter Paul and Fritz Tuiavi’i as Secretary went and met with the New Zealand-Samoan Rugby League Association.

“We met and we told them we were on a revival plan. We had the backing of the Samoan government who was very keen to see rugby league back again.”

The meeting was at the Richmond Club through the connections of Fritz’s uncle, Swanny Stowers who was very instrumental in keeping the Samoa Rugby League Association in New Zealand going.

“So we told the New Zealand contingent we were the new Samoa Rugby League Association. We revised the constitution and changed the name to Rugby League Samoa (RLS),” Paul explained.

“We also had a new logo which is the current logo. What we really put into it was a lot of pride. The logo meant something to us. We told them anything international they have to come through us. We convinced them that as we started with nothing the only way for us was going up for rugby league Samoa.”

Back on the map again
The Pacific Games in Samoa in 2007 put Samoa back on the League map. It was a Nines Competition put together with the help of players such as Tony Tuimavave and did not need too much money to put it together.

“We had a good team together. We were just unfortunate to lose to Fiji and settled for the Silver.”

This Nines Competition was to get Samoa to the International Rugby League Federation.

There was a guy named Tass Preterious who was part of the Australian Rugby League and was the International Development Officer at the time and had ties to the International Federation.

“We got his assistance for the South Pacific Games. So we developed a relationship and he came here and was quite excited with what he saw, the quality of the game with the Fijians, the Rarotongans, the Niueans and the Tongans were so good, apart from the Samoans.

Samoa to the International Rugby League Federation
Samoa was keen to be part of the IRLF and have a say especially the World Cup was coming up in 2008.

“So we contacted the International Federation and told them what we were going to redevelop the game.”

With the Tass Preterious connection, Peter Paul and Fritz Tuiavi’i soon found themselves rubbing shoulders with IRLF the bosses in a meeting in Leeds where Samoa was accepted as a member with full voting rights.

“That really helped us with our international game,” said Peter Paul.

2008 World Cup
But there were real challenges. Samoa lost to Tonga in the qualifiers in France in 2006 and did not qualify. So Samoa had to play USA and Lebanon in the repecharge that was played in Leeds at the same time the International Federation was meeting.

At the World Cup, Nigel Vagana was captain.

“We had a very good team and we beat Tonga in a tough match but unfortunately the four day turn-around time was quite short for Samoa and we lost to Ireland as our players didn’t have enough time to recover. This was an issue that came up in the International Federation.”

Taking a new direction and being in control after being so close
After the World Cup, RLS took a new direction. That was to take full control after learning from the previous mistakes.

“One of the first things we decided to do was to have a whole new Coaching Plan so we as the Association, could have a little more contact with the players. We felt it was a bit of the old regime coming in as the New Zealand based players sided with the coach. So we felt the best way was to have full control from here, based here and again with the government backing.”

Going into the 2012 World Cup, the first thing was the coach. Fritz got on the phone and called Wayne Bennet who gave his assistant coach at Saint George to help Samoa out. He took a team to play Tonga in Sydney and Samoa lost. Management was not impressed.

Toa Samoa then pushed further to take full control of things from Samoa. For the first time, they selected a Toa Samoa Coach in Matt Parish after an interview and selection process.

In 2014, Peter Paul stepped down from the President’s role to play a supporting role as Vice President. He would be one of the few who have been there from the start and is still much involved thirty years later.

Tagaloa Asiata Fouina Su’a took over as President and started an awesome team combination with Fritz Tuiavi’i and a new chapter started for Rugby League Samoa.