{"id":322612,"date":"2023-08-10T03:39:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T03:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=322612"},"modified":"2023-08-10T04:58:21","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T04:58:21","slug":"joey-to-consider-coaching-exciting-samoa-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=322612","title":{"rendered":"Joey to consider coaching 'exciting' Samoa team"},"content":{"rendered":"

R\ufeffugby league Immortal Andrew Johns<\/a> has confirmed he will consider coaching the Samoan<\/a> team if the island nation wants him to.<\/p>\n

The coaching chair is up for grabs after Matt Parish quit his post this week, having led the tier-two team to last year's World Cup<\/a> final, only to lose 30-10 to Australia.<\/p>\n

\ufeffJohns has previously offered to coach Samoa<\/a>, floating the idea of teaming up with his brother Matthew as well as cross-code superstar Sonny Bill Williams.<\/p>\n

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Whether the other two remain interested or not, Johns is toying with the idea of putting his hand up again.<\/p>\n

"I think maybe let the dust settle for a little while, have a really good think about it," Johns told Wide World of Sports' Immortal Behaviour<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Blues<\/p>\n

"I'm a big advocate and big supporter of the Polynesian islands… we need more international footy and we need more footy for the island nations.<\/p>\n

"I'd have to have a good think about it.<\/p>\n

"Moving forward, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, even Papua New Guinea – them in the next five-10 years are going to be so strong. I'd have to have a think about it.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

The Johns brothers last year publicly offered to coach Samoa to the World Cup, but the approach was knocked back.<\/p>\n

"Myself and Matthew have put our hands up to coach Samoa. We will do it for nothing, and we've said we will do it for nothing," Johns said at the time.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe decision from Samoa Rugby League proved fruitful as Parish led the team to its best ever result, shocking Tonga and England on the way to the tournament decider.<\/p>\n

Rugby league's tier-two nations\ufeff have enjoyed a substantial uptick in recent years, kickstarted by Jason Taumalolo's defection from New Zealand to represent Tonga.<\/p>\n

\"Aussies<\/p>\n

Tier-one teams Australia, New Zealand, and England now face genuine competition from the likes of Tonga and Samoa.<\/p>\n

"We need more rugby league being played in the islands. I go to Fiji quite a bit surfing, I've been to Samoa half a dozen times – pretty much it's all rugby union, so we've got to get rugby league played over in the islands," Johns said.<\/p>\n

"I'm a big supporter of another team coming in (to the NRL) being a Pacifica team, so it's an area of great growth within the game and is very exciting for international footy.<\/p>\n

"We're starting to see world-class Polynesian halves in the game. That's an area where they've been deficient in years gone by.<\/p>\n

"Every time they play Australia or New Zealand or England they're going to test them.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

When shown a potential Samoan team based on players in the NRL now, Johns said "that team is so exciting".<\/p>\n

After France withdrew from hosting the 2025 World Cup it has been pushed back to 2026<\/a>, with a host yet to be locked in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

R\ufeffugby league Immortal Andrew Johns has confirmed he will consider coaching the Samoan team if the island nation wants him to. The coaching chair is […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":322614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322612"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322612"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322617,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322612\/revisions\/322617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/322614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}