He’s the Super League star who broke England hearts but now Salford’s Tim Lafai wants one more career-defining moment.
The 31-year old was a bricklayer in Australia 12 months ago having fallen out of love with rugby league. On Saturday he walks out with Samoa under the Old Trafford lights for their historic first ever appearance in a World Cup final.
“Putting on this jersey is one of the proudest moments in my rugby career so I want to go hard,” says the Dream Team centre on the eve of a game that represents so much.
For Samoa it is history, and an opportunity for the tiny “dot in the ocean” as coach Matt Parish describes them, to share the stage with Australia, the best team in the world.
And for Lafai, who wasn’t even named in the initial World Cup squad and almost quit the game completely last year, it represents a remarkable personal journey back to the top.
“I thought the boat had sailed for the World Cup team, let alone playing in the final,” he says, having been called in as a late replacement after Samoa suffered a series of injuries in their thumping 60-6 opening day defeat by England.
“I thought I was just coming in to fill in some numbers while the injured boys recovered. I came into camp and got told I would be putting the jersey back on.
“It makes me appreciate this opportunity a lot more than I have in the past.”
Lafai was the standout performer in Samoa’s thrilling 27-26 semi-final rematch with England, giving his club-mate Kallum Watkins a torrid afternoon, running over him for two tries.
“The semi-final win left me speechless. Waking up the next day I asked my wife ‘did that really just happen?’ It is surreal and I’m still loving it.
“After that first game a lot of people wrote us off and fairly so. Who would have thought from that performance we would reach the final? It is crazy how this tournament has gone.”
Even more crazy is Lafai’s own resurgence. Released from his NRL contracts by both St George and then Canterbury in 2020, the struggling centre took a complete break from the sport that almost became permanent, working instead labouring on construction sites to put food on the table for his family, laying bricks and reprioritising his life.
“Having a year off from playing professionally, just working like an everyday Australian back home made me a lot more grateful coming back into the game, of what I actually had and what I could have lost,” he reflects.
“It put my vision into a different perspective with how I see the simple things, and having four kids and a wife makes me more determined, mature and have that passion for the game again.
“The last few years back in the NRL I wasn’t enjoying my rugby league, but coming over here gave me that love again.”
His arrival in Super League came via a call from Salford boss Paul Rowley, and Lafai enjoyed a stunning 2022 with the Red Devils, driving them to within minutes of the Grand Final and earning his own place in the prestigious Betfred Super League Dream Team.
And now to cap it all, he is back in the Samoa shirt that he first wore in the 2013 World Cup, the last time the tournament was held in England. And they are 80 minutes away from producing one of the most extraordinary triumphs in world sport.
“Playing for Samoa means we are representing our parents, that sacrifice my parents took to leave the country where we were born to get a better opportunity in Australia, to give us a better life.
“When we put on that jersey it is putting our families on our shoulders, we carry them with us.“
Despite their growing array of NRL stars led by Junior Paulo and Jarome Luai, Samoa are huge underdogs in the World Cup final. Nobody beats Australia on the big stage, let alone a tier two nation. Yet not many expected them to beat England either, and they found the right balance of intensity and composure to get that job done.
“To stop Australia you need to put your bodies on the line for 80 minutes,” says Lafai.
“You can’t go to sleep for a split second, they are the world’s best team so we have to go toe-to-toe for the full game.
“These are the proudest moments. You can see in the boys faces how much it means to us.”
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
