1 Mar 2018

Sport: Samoa women look to kick on from nines

1:35 pm on 1 March 2018

A coach from Samoa's women's rugby league nines team says there is now an opportunity to kick on from last week's Commonwealth Championship in Queensland.

Last week's tournament was the first time the Samoa women had been on the global stage since the 2008 World Cup.

The Samoans missed out on recent international play with the likes of the Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea representing the Pacific at the 2017 Women's world cup.

The Samoan women were pipped by Australia in the gold medal match

The Samoan women were pipped by Australia in the gold medal match Photo: Rugby League Samoa

But at the Commonwealth Nines Samoa defeated Fiji 24-6 and Tonga 20-0 on the way to a silver medal at the tournament.

Samoa's two losses came to the host Australian team in group play and then in a hard-fought 14-8 gold medal match.

Assistant coach, Rodney Hall, said the performance has the rugby league community abuzz.

"I think as an organisation and as a country, everyone is buzzing in terms of what has been achieved with the girls as silver medallists, especially on this occasion," Hall said.

"The Commonwealth [tournament] is a big achievement. Achieving medals is good."

Hall said the team didn't have a lot of resources which made the achievement even better.

"Financially most of it is self-funded but all you have to do is play with what you have in the hand and just go for it."

Hall said the men's U23 team also did well, winning the bronze in their competition.