Friday evening against Benetton in the RDS Arena will be the next step Michael Ala’alatoa takes in his World Cup courtship with Samoa. His home nation has been drawn in Pool D of next year’s competition in France along with England, Japan, Argentina and Chile, the South American team their opening match in Bordeaux next September.
The 6′3′' Leinster prop, whose father Vili was a member of the Samoa squad for the 199q Rugby World Cup and whose brother Allan currently plays with Australia, hopes to use Leinster as his shop window.
Although holding the captaincy of the Samoan side ought to offer some assurances, if he makes the plane to France it will be his second global showpiece, having also played in Japan in 2019, when Ireland were in Samoa’s pool. Schooled that day 47-5 with Johnny Sexton scoring two tries, a prosperous season with Leinster, he believes, will bring its own rewards for the international season next Autumn.
“Personally, I definitely have one eye on the World Cup,” he says. “I really want to do well for Leinster. I feel like if I put my best foot forward here and train and play really well it’s going to set me up really well to put my best foot forward for Samoa at the World Cup.
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“I want to be in the first team as much as possible. I’m not here just to be on the bench. I want to put my hand up to be the best player I can be.”
Samoa have had a fruitful season and won the Pacific Nations Cup at around the same time Ireland were beating New Zealand in the summer’s three match series. It’s the first time the side, who topped a group with Fiji, Tonga and an Australian A team, have been champions for eight years.
It is, says Ala’alatoa, an important transition in how Samoa is approaching rugby. They have begun to win matches that in previous years would have lost, which comes with a change in playing culture.
“It’s gives us a whole new level of belief, all three games we were down with around 20 minutes to go or [at] half-time and we managed to come back and win,” he says.
“In the past, Samoan teams would just fall over. We showed a lot of care and pride in the jersey. Pride in what we’re trying to achieve as a group. I hope the team that plays in November takes it forward. I’m sure there’ll be changes, but the foundation is there.”
That’s all positive news for Leinster. As Ireland will carefully count the minutes that go into the legs and shoulders of their props this season, game time should not be hard to find. Ala’alatoa played for 64 minutes against Zebre Parma last weekend at tighthead.
But the pressure to get competitive pitch time is not just coming from the top and established internationals. Leinster have 12 props knocking around UCD, eight listed on their senior roster and four more in the academy.
“Whatever Leo [Cullen] chooses to do is up to him,” says Ala’alatoa. “But I want to make it hard for him to choose between myself and someone else. I feel like if I do that it will set me up for whatever comes off the back of that like a World Cup and playing in those European games as well.”
“It [competition] is definitely there. It’s not just the Irish guys. The academy boys who come in and train with us, it’s there the whole way up the Leinster environment. The coaches do a good job of channelling it the right way. We get the most out of each other.”
His weekend’s rugby is now fixed. Benetton on Friday in a frontrow with Andrew Porter and Dan Sheehan before watching Australia against New Zealand on Saturday in the Rugby Championship decider at Auckland’s Eden Park.
The aftermath of French referee Mathieu Raynal’s controversial decision last week to fatally penalise Australia in the dying seconds of a game they were winning against the All Blacks for time-killing, resonates still. Australia lost the Bledisloe Cup in the process. Animosity has spilled into the rematch.
“I’ve spoken to him [Allan] briefly. He had a good game,” he says of his brother. “But he’s not giving too much away. He’s very much next task focused. They have another shot at it this week - not at the Bledisloe, but to beat the All Blacks.
“It’s [the time-wasting incident] something for the [Leinster] leaders to talk about anyway, the game-drivers. To give Stu Lancaster credit, he’s really good at that. It’s one of his strengths. We’ve got strong leaders who tend to make the right decisions in crucial moments.”
A right decision at a crucial moment and it begins on Friday.
