The Oka Diaries - Samoa, April 2012

The recently completed 'strong-man' outdoor training area - brainchild of former strength and conditioning coach Dave Edgar

The HPU Training Centre

Bruce Cook (IRB), Peter Horne (IRB), Tuala Mathew Vaea (SRU) during the desktop review

The purpose of our trip to Samoa last month was to undertake the Annual High Performance Review as well as a Strategic Planning meeting to develop the skeleton of the Union's new Strategic Plan. We are entering an exciting phase in the IRB's investment in the Oceania Region. The next planning cycle will take us to RWC Sevens 2013, Women's Rugby World Cup 2014, Rugby World Cup 2015 and of course the Rio 2016 Olympic Games - where rugby makes it's long awaited return to the Olympic family.

The Annual High Performance review is a process that we undertake every year in addition to the quarterly desktop reviews that are undertaken jointly by the IRB and the SRU.

It's fair to say that the SRU has copped a fair bit of criticism in the aftermath of RWC. Some of this criticism is justified - a couple of key administrative errors proved costly. But before casting aspersions on the SRU Administration, it is important to recognise that the SRU High Performance program is only 6 years-old and is still very much in its infancy. The Samoa Rugby Union does not operate in a culture of high performance that has existed in, say Australia, for example, since 1981 (when the Australian Insitute of Sport was established). In fact, the Samoa Rugby Union are trailblazers in High Performance sport in Samoa and are having to learn lessons the hard way - no other sport in Samoa, with the possible exception of weightlifting, invests in a full-time high performance program and there are no off-the-shelf HP programs that can be airlifted into a country that will operate perfectly from day one. The program has to be built from the ground up - built on the foundations of general principles of High Performance but one that is tailored to the unique needs and environment of a country like Samoa.

Mistakes will be made and will continue to be made - what is important is how the lessons from these mistakes are applied to improve the program in the future.

Despite what some have labelled an unsuccesful Rugby World Cup campaign, 2011 was a successful year on the field for Samoa's National teams. The performance of the Manu Samoa at RWC has been misrepresented - and this probably has something to do with their own (and not unreasonable) ambitions of making the knockout stages of the tournament. Their performance against South Africa - a team they have never beaten - was their best ever, reducing the margin of loss by some 40 points since the last RWC. Against Wales, they came within seven points of the eventual semi-finalists. Samoa's performance, in what turned out to be a formidable pool, was impressive and as a consequence of finishing third at RWC2011, they have automatically qualified for RWC2015 (again, something they did not achieve at RWC2007). Here are some key statistics from Samoa's RWC2011 campaign:

• Samoa reduced their losing margins against 'Tier 1' Countries by 75% from RWC2007
• Achieved their best ever result against South Africa (at RWC2007 they lost 59-7)
• Samoa finished the year with an IRB World Ranking of 10th
• They had the third best scrum of RWC - winning 97% of their own scrum feed. They won 27% of opposition scrum feeds - the best at RWC.
• Samoa won 25% of opposition lineout ball - the second best at RWC
• They had the 6th best kick success rate at RWC

There were other notable performances outside of Rugby World Cup - not the least of which was Samoa's 32-23 win over the Wallabies in June. The Samoa U20's won the IRB Junior World Trophy in Georgia - thus gaining promotion to the 2012 Junior World Championship in South Africa. And despite an inconsistent 2010/11 HSBC Sevens World Series, Samoa turned in some notable performance and managed to finish the year in 5th position (one point behind England).

National coach Stephen Betham outlines his vision for Samoa Rugby

SRU Staff and stakeholder work on the new SRU Strategic Plan

So the 2011 Annual High Performance review was aimed at assessing all aspects of the SRU's HP Program. The review critically analyses 4 areas of the program:

• Administration & Governance;
• The Daily Training Environment;
• Sports Science and Sports Medicine; and
• International Competition and Support

Within each of these areas are specific elements that are reviewed and assessed - in all over 100 different components of the SRU HP Program are scrutinised. Assisting with the review was a report completed by Mat Blair, the IRB's Strength and Conditioning consultant who recently visited Samoa to undertake an audit of the new SRU HP Gym and the SRU Strength and Conditioning program.

In addition to the desktop review, we undertook field visits to observe how the coaching and support structures operate in the training environment. There was plenty of activity with the U20's, Women's Sevens and Men's Sevens squads all in preparation phases for international competition - new SRU High Performance and Administration facility is a hive of activity.

The Annual review is always a thorough and tiring process. The findings of the review have been prioritised and are now being built into the 2012 Operations Plan to ensure that they are adressed adequately.

With a new coach, a new CEO, a new strategic plan and a new High Performance facility, the conditions are perfect for a prosperous 5 years for the Samoa Rugby Union. However, the review and planning are the easy bits - now for the hard work.