All Blacks to play first Test in Samoa next July

Reuters/Wellington

The match will be held on July 8, four days after the end of a Super Rugby season which will be played without a break for June internationals next year because of the World Cup.

But while he conceded he could be without several players recovering from Super Rugby duty, Hansen insisted New Zealand would not be sending a ‘B’ team to Apia Park.

“We will select the best possible team we can field, it’s a genuine All Blacks squad,” Hansen told reporters at New Zealand Rugby Union headquarters in Wellington.

“There’s no such thing as an All Blacks ‘B’ team,” he added. “The All Blacks are going to play Samoa and it will be the best team we can pick and they will be expected to play like All Blacks.

“But if they’re in the final, that’s the same week so we won’t be able to take them. Anyone else will be coming.”

Only three times in the 19 seasons of Super Rugby have New Zealand not been represented in the final.

Hansen said the Apia match would be New Zealand’s first Test of the year and crucial to their preparations for the World Cup, especially as there will be no June Tests next year and the Rugby Championship will be truncated.

“It will be a great way to start our season and a great way to bring the guys together,” Hansen added.

“It will be very special. We have a lot of guys with Samoan heritage in the team, who are proud of their heritage.”

The announcement had been widely expected and was confirmed on Tuesday by New Zealand Rugby Union chairman Brent Impey and Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi, who is also the chairman of the Samoa Rugby Union.

“It is well documented that New Zealand rugby has included many, many players of Pacific Island heritage, especially Samoans,” Malielegaoi said.

“It is therefore fitting that Manu Samoa will be hosting the All Blacks. It will be very special.”

The All Blacks, who have played more than 500 Tests since their first in 1903, have played just five matches against Samoa, all in New Zealand.

In 1984, they embarked on a four-match tour of Fiji in which they played one game against the national side but it was not given Test status.

Three of their four Tests against Tonga have been at World Cups. Their only non-World Cup clash was in Auckland in 2000 when the All Blacks ran up a 102-0 scoreline.

Apart from their regular tours to Europe, South Africa and Argentina, New Zealand have played matches in Hong Kong and Tokyo over the last few years and later this year will play in the US.

The influence of Polynesian players - and players of Pacific Island origin - on all levels of New Zealand rugby had prompted a groundswell of public opinion that the All Blacks should play the match in Apia.

Malielegaoi and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key had discussed the match when they met at Samoa’s independence celebrations in early July, while a New Zealand current affairs TV show had embarked on a campaign to get the game played.

The NZRU had been reluctant to play a match in the Pacific Islands, citing the congested international calendar and a lack of commercial opportunities in the region.

The announcement, however, came on the heels of a significant sponsorship agreement confirmed by the SRU with an Australian property and investment company on Monday.

Malielegaoi said sponsors and financial input from the International Rugby Board had underwritten the costs of the match.

Chief executive Steve Tew said the NZRU had sought guarantees that the costs of getting the team to Samoa and staying in Apia would be covered, while the SRU would meet the costs of running the game.

“We would hope there will be some money made for Samoa out of this match,” Tew said, who added it was rare for the NZRU to agree to an overseas match where there was no commercial return.

“We are very happy to play this game and we think it’s fair to cover our costs and that’s entirely satisfactory from our point of view.”