{"id":332464,"date":"2023-09-20T03:35:47","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T03:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=332464"},"modified":"2023-09-20T06:00:50","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T06:00:50","slug":"joey-mystery-remains-as-top-samoa-job-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=332464","title":{"rendered":"Joey mystery remains as top Samoa job revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samoa's men's rugby league team has settled on a replacement for\ufeff former head coach Matt Parish<\/a>, but his successor is not Andrew Johns<\/a>, who flirted with the prospect of leading the island nation as recently as last month.<\/p>\n

Rugby League Samoa revealed in a press release on Wednesday that Ben Gardiner, an assistant to Ivan Cleary at the Panthers, had been appointed the job.<\/p>\n

It was also announced that Jamie Soward, the\ufeff head coach of the Dragons' NRLW team and the club's 2010 premiership-winning five-eighth, was the new head coach of Samoa's women's team.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Farcical Tigers changes revealed after meeting<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Gardiner said it was "a privilege and honour to be entrusted" with the job.<\/p>\n

"It is a great opportunity to build connection and relationship as we move into a new era for Rugby League Samoa," Gardiner added.<\/p>\n

"Samoa has a rich rugby league heritage that connects us with culture and high performance, and I am committed to working tirelessly with our talented athletes to prepare them for the Pacific Championships. Together, we aim to make Samoa proud on the international stage."<\/p>\n

Stream every game of the 2023 NRL finals series live and free on<\/strong> 9Now<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

Johns has long been an unofficial ambassador \ufeffof Polynesian rugby league, voicing the need for the game to invest in those nations and his eagerness to be involved.<\/p>\n

While Australia and New Zealand have dominated men's international rugby league for many years, nations like Samoa, Fiji and Tonga have taken big strides to close the gap.<\/p>\n

Samoa's massive upsurge was the biggest story of last year's World Cup, which saw the tiny nation feature in a World Cup final for the first time.<\/p>\n

Johns is an assistant to Brad Fittler with the NSW Blues and \ufeffa coaching consultant under Adam O'Brien at the Knights, the club at which he rose to rugby league Immortality in a legendary career across the 1990s and 2000s.<\/p>\n

"I think maybe let the dust settle for a little while, have a really good think about it," Johns said of the Samoa coaching job on Wide World of Sports' Immortal Behaviour<\/em> last month<\/a>.<\/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

\"Junior<\/p>\n

"Moving forward, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, even Papua New Guinea \u2014 them in the next 5-10 years are going to be so strong.<\/p>\n

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

Soward spoke of his pride in scoring the job as head coach of Samoa's women's team.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"It is an extreme honour and privilege to coach Fetu Samoa," Soward said.<\/p>\n

"There is a large number of Polynesian women in the NRLW competition, and it's exciting to have many of these players represent Samoa.<\/p>\n

"I am also looking forward to embracing the Samoan culture during this journey."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samoa's men's rugby league team has settled on a replacement for\ufeff former head coach Matt Parish, but his successor is not Andrew Johns, who flirted […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":332466,"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\/332464"}],"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=332464"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332470,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332464\/revisions\/332470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/332466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}