Samoan star opens up on ‘crazy’ rise before record World Cup display
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Sua Fa’alogo was “just running around on the road” with a Samoa flag, cheering his team on in the 2022 World Cup final against the Kangaroos.
Four years later, he ran onto the field at CommBank Stadium wearing the blue jersey making his own debut on international rugby league’s biggest stage.
Sua Fa’alogo scored four tries in Samoa’s World Cup opener against France. Getty Images
His return to the international scene for the first time in three years couldn’t have gone much better, finishing with four tries – with a fifth denied by a soft Bunker obstruction call – 200 running metres, seven line breaks and two try assists.
And the fleet-footed speedster did it all from the bench, coming on for an injured Deine Mariner after just 10 minutes as Samoa thrashed France 78-4 on Friday.
The dazzling four-try display means Fa’alogo is almost certain to smash Tim Lafai’s record for most tries by a Samoan player in a World Cup with six.
Fa’alogo also levelled Taylan May and David Nofoaluma for the most tries in a game for Samoa, while becoming just the second player in RLWC history to score a hat-trick from the bench after Fiji’s Atunasia Vunivali in 2000.
Despite putting in a career-best performance, the famously humble 23-year-old didn’t want to take any of the credit himself.
“That was all the boys hard work – I just had to put it down,” he told reporters after the match.
“I’m just grateful to get the opportunity to put the blue jersey on.”
Playing at the Storm, Fa’alogo runs out every week with some of the biggest names in the NRL under one of the best coaches the game has ever seen.
But in the World Cup camp, as the squad bonded over culture and family, he was reminded of those times running in the street.
"It's unreal thinking about it back then," he said.
“But now to put that jersey on, it means a lot to me and my family. It’s a crazy feeling – I still can’t believe I’m standing here.”
Mariner scored the opening try of the match but limped off with a hamstring injury early on and was clearly devastated as he sat on the bench.
“You can see the emotion ... it looks as though he knows his hamstring may not be good,” Corey Parker said on commentary for Seven.
Samoa coach Ben Gardiner said Mariner came from the field with hamstring "awareness", and it was more precautionary.
Deine Mariner scores a try. Getty Images
That said, he confirmed Mariner would go for scans on Saturday to rule out any further injury.
"It's one of those things, but being so early in the tournament and the fact we scored a few tries early, I just thought it was safer for him to come off and not put any pressure on it," he said.
Mariner's injury meant Fa'alogo came on the field "a bit earlier" than Gardiner would have intended.
"We were planning for him to come on at some stage, and to his credit he went out and had a blinder," Gardiner said.
Fa’alogo obviously led the try-scoring, with hooker Benaiah Ioelu the only other multiple-scorer of the night, and even that was off the last play of the night when Samoa pounced on a missed penalty goal from Stephen Crichton.
Eight other players got on the scoring sheet in the 14 tries to one thrashing, which ended up being Samoa’s highest-ever score and margin.
Crichton’s 26 individual points as also a record for the Samoan national side.
