Samoa are bracing for the humidity and hostility of Papua New Guinea as Jarome Luai and Brian To’o prepare to play in Port Moresby for the first time since signing with the PNG Chiefs.
Runners-up four years ago, Samoa showed their strong credentials by humiliating France 78-4 on Friday at Parramatta’s CommBank Stadium, ahead of an away trip to face the Kumuls in Port Moresby next Saturday.
PNG will represent much more difficult opponents even without some of their star names on show as the Kumuls have lost just one home Test over the last decade.
And there will be extra attention on Luai and To’o, who will join the Chiefs in 2028 for their inaugural NRL season.
“We're looking forward to going and doing something different, the chaos, it's exciting,” said Samoa coach Ben Gardiner.
“We've got some guys that are really loved over there and you’ve got to lean into that.
“I think that's something that we're going to do next week, lean into the fact that we expect to have a nice big crowd and a lot of them will probably be against us.
“That's one of the great things about the Samoan community around the world. There's a Samoan community in PNG who have already reached out to us and told us that they're going to have our back.”
Many players who have played in PNG explain how oppressive the humidity and heat can be, particularly given matches often taken place in the middle of the day.
Next Saturday’s group stage clash with Samoa - runners-up four years ago - kicks off at 2.25pm local time.
Not that the climate will bother Western Sydney-born prop Junior Paulo.
“We get the heat out west, which is kind of similar,” the Samoan captain said.
Friday’s heavy win revealed nothing that wasn’t already known about either team, but Samoa are aware they will have to go up a level if they are to make it out of the group stage.
A win in PNG can all but guarantee Samoa’s passage into the knockout stages where they would likely face New Zealand or Australia, who opened the tournament with one of the best trans-Tasman Tests in years, in the semi-final.
“To see a World Cup kick off with a game like that on a Thursday night, it was pretty impressive,” Gardiner said.
“We’ve got to focus on what we've got to do in our own camp and make sure that our connection is what we need so when we hit our hit the field, we can be at our best.”
