{"id":345177,"date":"2023-11-09T22:11:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T23:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=345177"},"modified":"2023-11-10T00:01:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T00:01:25","slug":"england-disappointed-by-samoa-test-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=345177","title":{"rendered":"England 'disappointed' by Samoa Test snub"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Samoan national team<\/a> has rejected \ufeffan invitation to play England<\/a> in a three-game series in 2024, opting instead to play in the Pacific Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The decision leaves England without an international opponent next year, with\ufeff the Rugby Football League saying it will be "exploring all options" to set up fixtures in 2024.<\/p>\n

Samoa \ufeffwill join Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea in next year's edition of the Pacific Championships.<\/p>\n

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READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Dragons extend deal of star who may never play again<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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RFL chair Simon Johnson said the decision was "disappointing".<\/p>\n

"We can't afford to dwell on it. They have made their decision," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Stephen<\/p>\n

"We now owe it to Shaun Wane and the players, and to England supporters, to deliver meaningful international rugby league in 2024, and we are working with RL commercial and the IRL to make that happen.<\/p>\n

"We'll make further announcements as soon as there are any positive developments."<\/p>\n

Samoa lost both of their group games against Australia and New Zealand in this year's version of the southern hemisphere tournament, which was won by the Kiwis, while PNG beat Fiji in the final of the Pacific Bowl.<\/p>\n

With Tonga set to participate in the Pacific Championships for the first time next year, England's options are limited.<\/p>\n

However, England's men's and women's teams will travel to Australia in 2025, while New Zealand and Australia have confirmed they'll travel to the northern hemisphere to play England in 2027 and 2028.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Samoan national team has rejected \ufeffan invitation to play England in a three-game series in 2024, opting instead to play in the Pacific Championship. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":345179,"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\/345177"}],"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=345177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345180,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345177\/revisions\/345180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/345179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=345177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=345177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=345177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}