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Watch as Samoa’s Jarome Luai pays tribute to Wigan Warriors legend

NRL star Jarome Luai paid tribute to a Wigan Warriors legend ahead of Samoa’s Test against England yesterday.

Prior to helping lead a passionate Siva Tau, Luai would approach the halfway line to lay a shirt in honour of Wigan Warriors and Samoa legend Va’aiga Tuigamala, who sadly passed away in 2022.

It was a touching moment to pay respect to the code-hoper who made over 100 appearances for Wigan as part of the Warriors’ all-conquering team of the 1990s.

With the game being held at Wigan Warriors’ Brick Community Stadium in front of 15,000 fans, it was an act that underpinned the emotion in the air before the game which England would win 34-18 in what was a feisty affair.

It wasn’t just before the game that emotions were high as a late scuffle, dubbed as the ‘worst thing England could have done’, ensued with Kevin Brown arguing that it would have fired up Samoa even more for the Test at Headingley on Saturday.

It was one of two scuffles with the first being initiated by John Bateman and Samoa’s Jazz Tevaga in what Australian outlet The Daily Telegraph would dub as an incident to ‘further undermine his chances of a stable future in the game’.

Their claim that he had ‘blown his career audition’ was certainly an unfair assessment of Bateman’s performance given he led England on the tackle count in an industrious 80-minute performance.

Wigan Warriors legend honoured by Jarome Luai

Credit: Ben Duffy/SWpix – Va’aiga Tuigamala would become a legend in Newcastle during his Rugby Union playing days.

It was no surprise that there was such emotion displayed in the game given the pre-match Siva Tau which saw several England and Samoa players come head-to-head, including Man of Steel Mikey Lewis and Samoa’s Gordon Chan Kum Tong with neither backing down.

That Siva Tau came just after Luai laid the Wigan Warriors’ shirt emblazoned with Tuigamala’s name and number to rapturous applause.

Tuigamala would only spend a handful of seasons in England but his impact was massive, earning Super League Dream Team honours for the competition’s inaugural campaign back in 1996 along with five other Wigan Warriors players.

He would remain in England but returned to Rugby Union, starring for Newcastle where he would also make over 100 appearances before returning Down Under. Back home, he would make the interesting move into business as a funeral director, something that saw him organise the funeral of the late King of Tonga in 2006.

You can see the touching tribute that Samoa captain Jarome Luai would pay to Tuigamala in the video linked here.

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