18 Jan 2008

New Manu Samoa rugby union 15's coach has firm ideas about the future

11:01 am on 18 January 2008

The new Manu Samoa rugby 15's coach Tuala Lepale Niko Palamo has firm ideas on how to take his side through to the World Cup in 2011.

Tuala was appointed the first fulltime coach this week.

Tuala says Samoa doesn't have an elite player base to select a competitive team, so one of his plans is to set up a local development programme.

"And then also we need to look at the competition structure that we have, so that we can have some competition to gain experience of our players especially our local players and to sustain the level that can be similar to the one overseas."