Brave Levi helps restore Samoan pride

Dec 10 2009 by Nick Purewal, The Journal

“We were quite close against Wales, but then against France they eased away with those four pressure kicks they scored.

“I did not really feel France were all that physical – maybe they were saving themselves for the All Blacks.

“We ran in a try in the second half, but they scored two, so that was that and the damage was done in the first half really.

“The week when we got in against Wales was really quite emotional for us.

“A lot of the guys who live in Samoa and a lot of the locals were telling us stories about what was going on, things that are really, really sad.

“So we spoke about how we were going to try and make our people happy through trying to win games.

“When we did not win guys’ heads went down and down.

“You have a big mix of international players and amateur players which sometimes does not mix that well, but we were all pulling together to try to do something for everyone back home.

“It did not work out the way we wanted and everyone felt a burden about that, but hopefully we still made the people back home proud.”