Samoa

The Brave Blossoms face Samoa at Milton Keynes in a match that will make or break their quarter-final chances. After stunning South Africa in their opening game in Pool B, Japan played Scotland just four days later and faded after an hour, slipping to a 45-10 defeat.

Eddie Jones’ men, however, have recuperated over the past six days in the quiet of Warwick, where the team have been able to focus on preparing for the Samoa game.

On Saturday, American Samoa held a memorial service for the 34 victims killed there.

The names of the children, father and mothers, who died in the tsunami were read and monetary awards were presented to the children who lost their parents.

The money was donated by the One Global Family organisation, founded by Laura Ava-Tesimale.

The Governor, Lolo Matalasi Moliga said the pain and suffering endured by families of the victims of the tsunami still lingers on and will never end.

Adriaan Strauss, who will win his 50th cap, is the starting hooker, while Duane Vermeulen will make his first Test appearance of the year in the No 8 jersey as coach Heyneke Meyer reacted swiftly to the shock of defeat against Japan.

Willie le Roux, JP Pietersen and Damian De Allende return in the backline – with skipper Jean de Villiers shifting to outside centre – while there are new halfbacks in Handré Pollard and Fourie du Preez.

First up is England in the opening match of the tournament at Twickenham on Saturday morning.

Expecting a raucous atmosphere, head coach John McKee revealed during the week his team used loud speakers during training camps in an effort to prepare for the atmosphere at the home of English rugby.

While the bulk of the 82,000 strong Twickenham crowd will be barracking for the home side but coach John McKee says the Pacific Nations Cup winners are embracing the occasion.

Nine of the 13 Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) Members that are Parties to the Waigani Convention were present at the meeting. SPREP is the Secretariat of the Waigani Convention that entered into force in 2001.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) are inviting cultural enterprises in the crafts, visual arts and fashion sectors from Fiji, Samoa and Solomon Islands to apply for funded participation at the popular tradeshow which attracted over 30,000 buyers from over 80 countries this year.

Dr Seine Va'ai says there are also people suffering from the heat.

The Ministry's advice come after reports some athletes competing at the Commonwealth Youth Games needed treatment for diarrhoea and vomiting.

It says people can avoid the transmission of disease by ensuring they have access to clean drinking water, adequate sanitation and good personal hygiene.

Cameroon Valdi Ahmed Njoya scooped the gold, Pakistan’s  Abdur Rehman taking silver and Opeloge settled for bronze.

Opeloge’s best in the Snatch was 96kg while his Clean & Jerk total points were  122kg. He received 218  as his final points.

Don nephew is a the youngest of the Opeloge family with two older brothers and sisters Ele and Mary Opeloge who have all represented and won medals for Samoa in the sport. Don said that he only started lifting weights this year and because his family is so involved in the weightlifting, he gave it a try.

The 15-year-old came into the race having beaten compatriot Gabrielle Fa’amausili in the 100m backstroke and produced another superb performance to take 200m gold with a time of 2min 10.87sec.

She touched the wall over three seconds in front of nearest challenger Nathania van Niekerk of South Africa, while Australian Elyse Woods did enough for bronze.

Tarbei, who claimed the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Youth Championships 800m title in Colombia in July ahead of his team-mate, clocked the fifth-fastest time of the year as he crossed the line in 1min 46.05sec.

In the battle of the top two boy’s 800m runners in the world, Bett led at the turn coming into the home stretch but Tarbei powered to the front late on, with the world youth silver medallist finishing in 1:46.15, while Scotland’s Ben Greenwood clinched bronze.