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It is fair to say that neither Samoa nor Brazil expected to be in Dubai playing the RWC 2027 Final Qualification Tournament, but they are here for very different reasons. Regardless, they will be both fronting up physically and looking to get this final shot to reach the RWC in Australia off to a good start on Saturday at the Sevens Stadium.
Samoa are ranked 16th in the world, while Brazil is 32nd. Samoa, at the start of the Pacific Nations Cup 2025 would have assumed, and rightly so, that they would book their ticket to yet another Rugby World Cup tournament (their tenth in total) by finishing in the top four, but they were poor in the tournament and upset by the USA Eagles to find themselves scrambling to a two-leg defeat to Chile before finding themselves in this last chance saloon.
Brazil would have been the favourites to beat Paraguay in their two-leg playoff, but were dumped out by their South American counterparts and thought their RWC 2027 adventure was over. A short while later, they found themselves reinstated in this competition at the expense of the team that had beaten them due to an admin error, as Paraguay fielded an ineligible player in those playoff matches in which they defeated Brazil.
The Pacific Islanders are winless under new Head Coach Tusi Pisi in Tests in 2025 and are on a six-match losing streak, but Brazil are also without a win in six matches, and both will look to secure their first win this year.
The Samoans have brought back a host of European-based players who were absent from the PNC campaign. Samoan captain Theo McFarland, who plays with Saracens in the UK, missed the latter matches due to injury and said from Dubai, “It's definitely been tough, but especially now it's the last chance for qualifying, the last tournament, and it's all training and games and it's a lot of pressure.”
He added, “But at the same time, pressure is part of the job and every time you play rugby. For us, it's just the focus, staying in the moment and trusting all our progress. You take it day by day in the week and you build your confidence playing on the weekend.”
The Samoa Rugby Union has been labelling the team’s efforts in Dubai as the ‘Hope of a nation’ and McFarland said, “We obviously want to qualify, and we have been involved a lot in the Rugby World Cup. So it's definitely a lot of pressure. But with that, we've had a good couple of days of training, and we'll just figure out as we go. We’re focusing on us and not worrying about the result. Just focusing on what we're doing on a daily basis, focusing on preparation.”
The Samoans have called into the tournament squad former Australia international and current Exeter Chiefs prop Scott Sio, who could debut for them in Dubai (his father David Sio was part of Samoa’s 1991 World Cup squad), and there are returns for Niko Jones, Jacob Umaga, and Duncan Paia’aua.
Sio has not been selected to face Brazil, but Umaga (Benetton, Italy) will start at fullback on Saturday, with Niko Jones among the reserves. There are five French-based players in their matchday squad, as well as 4 Moana Pasifika members and two who play in Japan; Ben Petaia Nee Nee (Kamaishi Seawaves) and Taleni Seu (Aichi Shuttles).
Moana Pasifika hooker Mills Sanerivi, Faletoi Peni, and Samoa Sevens player Va’a Apelu-Maliko are all uncapped and in the tournament squad, and Sanerivi and Apelu-Maliko have been selected to start against Brazil, with Faletoi Peni due to earn his first cap from the bench in Dubai.
For Brazil, who have never been to the big dance as they say, centre and tournament captain Lorenzo Massari (regular captain Cleber Dias is absent through injury) said of facing Samoa first up and for the first time ever, “Of course, it's a big, big privilege to face a team as big as Samoa. And in a situation like this, which is trying to qualify for the Rugby World Cup. But I don't think there is a bigger privilege than this, and that's why we choose to play this game and having a very big prize to play for should be the biggest privilege for us.
We are very, very close to a bigger dream that is a Rugby World Cup. So I don't think there's much else to speak to my team-mates about (before Saturday). They already know. They work hard for it.”
This is the closest the Os Tupis have come to qualifying for the Men’s Rugby World Cup.
The squad they have selected for the tournament relies on a core of players from the Cobras Brasil Rugby but also draws on a global pool of players with Technical Director Josh Reeves having called up players based in Argentina, Italy, England (Raphael Hollister), France (Carlo Mignot, Théo Bastardie and Caique Segura), Italy (Matteo Dell’Acqua and Leonel Moreno), South Africa (Devon Muller) and Spain (Yan Rosetti).
Reeves is in his role for the second time with Brazil and surprisingly replaced Emiliano Caffera days before their Rugby World Cup 2027 Qualifiers against Paraguay, which they lost.
He has selected 16 of the matchday squad to face Samoa from the Cobras, but Théo Bastardie starts on the left wing (Rouen, France), at inside centre is Raphael “Raff” Hollister (Blackheath, England), two Italian-based players and one French-based player start in the tight five; Matteo Dell'Acqua (Valorugby, Italy), Leonel Moreno (Colorno, Italy), and Caique Segura (La Seyne, France).
Samoa are favourites for the tournament and this match, but have really struggled to put a good 80 minutes together. It should be a physical battle, which the Brazilians enjoy too, but the quality of Samoa should shine through.
