WHEN it comes to bands of brothers, Samoa have always taken things to extremes. There was the small army of Tuilagis who have been playing for them since 1995, even taking into account the one they allowed England to borrow, and now they have become the first nation in history to field three brothers in the same World Cup game.
It is something that has been done before international rugby, though rarely. Scotland were the first when Arthur, George and Ninian Finlay played for them in 1875, and now Samoa have become the latest to join that elite band when Ken, George and Tusi Pisi all took to the field against South Africa, a true celebration of family values.
Not that the game itself went the way they wanted, with the Springboks emerging as more than comfortable winner and with the Pacific Islanders having gone one to add a defeat to Japan to to that, they are out of the World Cup and relying on a miracle result when Japan play the USA even to make third place in the pool and gain automatic qualification to the next tournament.
When the sport is as literally in the family as it is for Samoa, this hurts more than for most. ""It's no different us being actually related as brothers, we all consider ourselves brothers. We all come from a strong family culture. I treat another guy in the squad just as I would Ken as a blood brother," explained George, the middle brother at 29.
"This is the people's team and they're going to be gutted. But win or lose it's about how we perform. If we perform well and do our best they will be happy with that. We've let ourselves down at the moment. But leading into this game we're a bit fired up to put some pride back into the Manu Samoan name.
"From the start we always knew this pool was going to be tough. We never took any of the games for granted. We took it week by week. The outcome didn't come our way but we still have a lot to play for in terms of pride back into our team and our nation. It's been a while since we've all played together in the same team. It was a blessing for our family."
For little brother Ken, the 26-yer-old wing, it was even more special. "We've always wanted to play internationally together, having played provincially together for North Harbour. To play for our country together was a dream come true," he said.
"Now we do want to finish on a high in this World Cup, we always want to be in that top ten in the world rankings. We're not taking this game lightly, we want to finish on a high. Yeah we've seen the first couple of Scotland's games. They're looking sharp like a knife. A structured team and a really good physical team."
Brotherly connections, it must be said, can have its upside and downside. While Tusi, the oldest at 33 slotted in at fly half, his George had to go a bit further out in the centre, while Ken ended out on the wing. "Yes I was George and Tusi's tackling bag," Ken explained. "It had to learn to dodge and get quick just to keep away from them!"
Win or lose this is not the last the Glasgow contingent will see of George and Ken – Tusi plays in Japan these days after a long career in New Zealand rugby – sine they both play for Northampton, who the Scots are due to meet in the European Champions Cup.
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