1 Jun 2017

Sport: Reds select six Samoans for Blues clash in Apia

1:44 pm on 1 June 2017

The Queensland Reds have named six players with Samoan heritage in their matchday squad for tomorrow night's historic Super Rugby game against the Blues in Apia.

Sef Fa'agase starts at loosehead prop, Lukhan Tui is in the second row while Hendrik Tui has been named on the blindslide flank.

Out wide, Duncan Paia'aua starts at second five and Karmichael Hunt is at fullback, with Caleb Timu a loose forward option off the bench.

Lukhan Tui is lifted during lineout drills at Reds training in Apia.

Lukhan Tui is lifted during lineout drills at Reds training in Apia. Photo: Facebook / Queensland Reds

The Reds team arrived in Samoa on Sunday and captain Samu Kerevi said they received a warm welcome.

"It's always awesome to be part of history and today celebrating Samoa's independence, it's been a massive blessing for a lot of boys to have this opportunity to be here," he said.

"For us it's a real eye-opener to come to Samoa and it's a massive relief the game is a bit late in the day (8:30pm local time) when the weather is a bit cooler but again the conditions will still be tough.

"It will be slippery ball out there with the amount of sweating that will go on but it's really good to be here."

Queensland Reds captain Samu Kerevi issues instructions during training.

Queensland Reds captain Samu Kerevi issues instructions during training. Photo: Facebook / Queensland Reds

Samu Kerevi was born in Viseisei, Fiji and represented his country of birth at the 2012 Junior World Championship.

He's since been capped eight time for the Wallabies and said it was great to see Super Rugby spreading into the islands.

"The percentage of players that are from Pacific background has gone up in the last couple of years so for us to be taking games back to Fiji - me obviously being from a Fijian background - it was really good to see," he said.

"And then you saw that game Chiefs and Crusaders, which was a cracker of a game so for me to see us go back to our home countries it's really humbling.

"It's awesome for the teams to go back and take that iniative to take games back to the homelands where the people will really cherish it and have games that they'll be able to see live, which is really awesome."

Kids watch on as the Queensland Reds train in Apia.

Kids watch on as the Queensland Reds train in Apia. Photo: Facebook / Queensland Reds