WHILE HIS LEINSTER teammates were busy toppling the All Blacks in New Zealand over the summer, Michael Ala’alatoa and the Samoa squad were making their own significant strides.
Samoa’s summer schedule took in games against Australia A, Tonga and Fiji as the Pacific Nations Cup returned for the first time since 2019. Building on back-to-back wins against Tonga last summer, Samoa extended their winning run to five games and ended a long wait for Pacific Nations Cup success.
“We had the Pacific Nations Cup the same days as Ireland were playing in New Zealand, it’s the first time we won that in eight years,” Ala’alatoa explains.
“It’s been a really good experience, whoever plays in November I’m sure will take that momentum moving forward. For myself personally, I definitely have one eye on the World Cup (next year). I really wanted to do well for Leinster, I feel like if I put my best foot forward here and train and play really well it’s going to set me up really well to put my best foot forward for Samoa at the World Cup.
“It’s gives us a whole new level of belief (to win the Pacific Nations Cup), all three games we were down with around 20 minutes to go or half-time and we managed to come back and win.
In the past, Samoan teams would just fall over, we showed a lot of care and pride in the jersey. Pride in what we’re trying to achieve as a group. I hope the team that plays in November takes it forward. I’m sure there’ll be changes, but the foundation is there.”
As Samoa captain, Ala’alatoa – whose brother Allan plays for Australia – has lofty ambitions at international level. Samoa have been placed in Pool D for next year’s World Cup, alongside England, Japan, Argentina and Chile. Continue to move in the right direction, and there’s scope to pull off a couple of shocks in France.
Memories of the 2019 tournament in Japan will also serve as motivation. Having just come into the squad, Ala’alatoa saw Samoa open with a win against Russia, before heavy defeats to Scotland, Japan and Ireland, the lowpoint being a 47-5 loss to Joe Schmidt’s Ireland in their final pool outing.
“To be honest, I only came into the team just before the World Cup and a lot of the structure of the management and everything was a lot different,” the tighthead continues.
“Once we lost to Japan, it was hard to get up for that Irish game. The Japan game, if we’d won we’d still be in with a chance of making the quarters but because we didn’t it was just a last Test against Ireland.
“We played against 14 for 60 odd minutes, but we still got a bit of a hiding. I took that pretty personally, it was an embarrassing way to finish.
“Samoa is in a lot better place now with Seilala Mapusua as the head coach and the management team he has around him, it’s a really good and a lot more professional set-up. I’m really looking forward to how he’s going to lead the team into next year.”
The former Crusaders player is now in his second season with Leinster, adding power and skill to the province’s frontrow after taking some time to find his feet in new surroundings, and experiencing new styles of rugby.
It definitely has lived up to my expectations, I’ve enjoyed the rugby. It’s different rugby to Southern Hemisphere, I feel like here at Leinster we try and play an attacking brand, but a lot of the teams in Europe try to slow us down a bit.
“It’s taken a while for me to get used to that mindset of the other teams. In the Southern Hemisphere it’s just attack versus attack, all out attack. So, yeah, it took a while for me to get my head around that.
“With that, we have to be really accurate in what we’re doing, nail every moment and every chance we get with the ball we need to execute. With that comes pressure as well, we played a few big games last year where we fell short. Those were great experiences for me, playing in those games, and I want to take that forward this year.”
One of the big attractions of leaving the Crusaders for Leinster was the opportunity to take in new parts of the world. Living in Dublin with his wife, Kara, and two young sons, Parker and Miles, the Ala’alatoa family have already clocked up plenty of miles on the roads across Ireland.
“It’s been great, we’ve enjoyed Dublin. The summer’s been amazing, a lot better than when we arrived last year and having those restrictions…
“Being in Europe, being able to travel one hour here or two hours there to places with completely different cultures – we were in Italy last week and it was only my second time there, I was pinching myself playing in those countries.
“It’s been class. We went to West Cork, Clonakilty a few weeks ago for a few nights and went to Inchydoney Beach – the weather was class, we spent the whole day there. We went to a place in Cavan called Cabu Cabins and that was really nice as well.
“We’ve got friends in Galway and the weather’s a bit hit and miss, but it’s a good place to go to. We’ve been to a lot of places, Belfast as well for a week. We’ve made the most of the time we’ve had here.
“One thing that my wife loves doing is travelling, so being on this side of the world and being able to travel to all these different countries has been unbelievable for her as well.
“It’s something to look forward to being here, we are a bit isolated being away from all of our family and friends back home but we do have something to look forward to whenever we have a bit of down-time.”
The travelling is parked for now as Leinster work their way through the early rounds of the URC. The 30-year-old starts in the frontrow this evening as Leinster welcome Benetton to the RDS.
Having featured 25 times for the province last season – starting on 12 occasions – Ala’alatoa is now determined to kick on and push first-choice tighthead Tadhg Furlong when the big European games roll around.
“I want to be in the first team as much as possible, I’m not here just to be on the bench. I want to put my hand up to be the best player I can be.
“Whatever Leo chooses to do is up to him, but I want to make it hard for him to choose between myself and someone else.
“I feel like if I do that it will set me up for whatever comes off the back of that like a World Cup and playing in those European games as well.”
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