Samoa is not the least intimidated by the big names in the Flying Fijians team and is confident of securing its first win their Pacific Nations opener this weekend.

The Samoans arrived into Fiji early this morning and prepared for the first training run this afternoon - undeterred by the bad weather.

“We have less than 10 reps who featured in the world cup. Fiji has more but we wouldn’t have bought this team if we didn’t know they were not capable of carrying out the job at hand,” said Samoa coach Niko Palamo.

With Filipo Levi leading the charge, the Samoans like Fiji are desperate to put up their first win in the competition and have covered all areas to increase their chances of claiming a win at Churchill Park.

They know Fiji will hit hard with their star-studded forward pack but Palamo has a few surprises up his sleeve.

“Whenever two Pacific Island teams meet, there is bound to be fire and we expect nothing less this weekend,” he said.

“Fiji has an impressive team, most of whom are overseas-based-ones that have been impressive in their respective clubs I might add but we can’t let that get to us.

“They want a win, we want a win. The team that has the best defence will win at the end of the day,” Palamo added.

“We have a game plan set and we plan to utilise that and maintain as much possession as we can muster and capitalise to score points.”

Samoa expects to finalise a run-on team by tomorrow.

Fijilive

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