13 Aug 2015

Sport: Samoa confident in World Cup squad after making hard calls

9:30 am on 13 August 2015

Manu Samoa believe they've picked the best players possible for next month's Rugby World Cup.

The 31 man squad was named earlier this week, with Ofisa Treviranusto captain the side, which features three local players, while the likes of flanker Faifili Levave and outside backs Sinoti Sinoti, Paul Williams and Ah See Tuala have missed out.

Assistant coach Namulauulu Alama Ieremia says the All Blacks test and Pacific Nations Cup was about people putting their hands up and some players did and some players didn't.

"In some cases we had massive competiton and some players have actually missed out. We had to pick the best players so that's always going to be the tough calls we have to make as coaches. We're very well aware that we've got a long three months ahead of us and anything could happen so a lot of these players have been put on notice that they're only an injury away from actually getting called back in, and that was the whole point of having a wider training group earlier in the year - from 55 down to 31 - just to make sure that we kept everyone in the loop in terms of how big the season is and anything can happen".

The squad will reassemble in Samoa next week before flying out to the UK, where they will play matches against the Barbarians and Wasps prior to the World Cup kicking off.

Manu Samoa coach Stephen Betham, left, manager Sami Leota, centre, and co-coach Alama Ieremia at the team announcement in Apia today.

Manu Samoa coach Stephen Betham, left, manager Sami Leota, centre, and co-coach Alama Ieremia at the team announcement in Apia today. Photo: RNZ / Sharon Lundy