Toa Samoa Head Coach Matt Parish has made six changes to his side that will face Greece this Monday morning (Sunday afternoon in England).
Parish has been under fire by critics and public social media posts since his side took a 60-6 loss against England last week.
To add to the stress, four players have been ruled out of selection due to injury while another player has been suspended for one match.
Izack Tago (shoulder), Braden Hamlin-Uele (fractured leg), Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow (ankle) and Tyrone May (hip) will all miss out on the rest of the World Cup campaign.
Halfback Anthony Milford serves a one match ban for a late tackle against England.
Named to start at centre in place of Tago is Super League’s centre of the year Tim Lafai. Lafai has represented Samoa in the last two World Cups and is no stranger to the blue jersey.
Coming off a successful season with Salford Red Devils, Lafai looks to carry on his form for Samoa.
Lafai’s Red Devils teammate and debutant Ken Sio will start on the wing in the place of Tabuai-Fidow. Sio has scored in 84% of all matches played for the Red Devils.
Lafai and Sio are the left edge Centre-Wing combination for their club. Sio finished as the Super League’s second top try scorer with 26 tries, many of them being assisted by Lafai.
The dynamic duo look to carry on their try scoring antics for Samoa this weekend.
With Anthony Milford serving a ban, Fa’amanu Brown will combine with Jarome Lua’i in the halves.
Many fans thought Channel Harris-Tevita would secure the halfback spot left vacant by Milford however Matt Parish has gone with the West Tiger’s Faamanu Brown.
Kelma Tuilagi has strangely been left out of the side to face Greece. The second-rower came off the bench to replace the injured Hamlin-Uele last week and made a number of tackles, complemented by his hard running.
Instead, Josh Aloiai will move from lock to the second-row, allowing Martin Taupa’ū to jump from the bench to the starting lock position.
On the bench are debutants Royce Hunt of the Cronulla Sharks and NRL finalist Oregon Kaufusi.
Panthers power runner Spencer Leniu and the late World Cup call-up Ligi Sao completes Samoa’s bench.
The match is streamed live on Samoa’s TV1 at 5am Monday morning.
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