DUBAI // Apollo Perelini has been granted leave from his new job at the Elite Sporting Academy (ESA) here - before he has even started. Perelini shocked Britain's Super League earlier this month when he ended his four-year term as the strength and conditioning guru for the top side, St Helens, to head up coaching at the start-up academy in the UAE.
However, the dual code international, who remains a St Helens legend, has one final task before he jets into Dubai for good. He is part of the coaching team for his native Samoa, who are considered dark horses to win the Rugby League World Cup in Australia, which starts later this month. "We have named a very strong squad with world-class players across all positions selected from the British Super League and Australian NRL competitions," Perelini said.
"Obviously the favourites will be the likes of Australia, New Zealand and England but I expect Samoa to be in the frame when the business end of the competition begins." Perelini's Samoa face a colossal opening pool match in Australia, when they take on their fellow islanders, Tonga, in Penrith on Oct 31. The World Cup winners are expected to come from the group which includes Australia, England and New Zealand.
However, Perelini feels a shock is not beyond his side. He has form himself: he was part of the Western Samoa team who upset Wales in the opening match of the 1991 Union World Cup. "I remember that day well, nobody gave us a chance and we went out there and left nothing on the pitch," he said. "We believed in ourselves and we knew we had the personnel to achieve the result." The ESA, which is based at Repton School in Nad al Sheba and ia aimed at providing a pathway to elite sport for the region's top young sportsmen, is rapidly becoming a Samoan enclave.
The academy's two directors, John Mamea-Wilson and the Australia midfielder Tim Cahill are both proud Samoans. Cahill, whose mother is Samoan, represented the Pacific island nation in international football at youth level. He was only able to switch allegiances to play senior football for Australia - for whom he scored their first ever World Cup finals goal back in 2006 - after receiving special dispensation from Fifa.
Mamea-Wilson, who played for Samoa against Wales in the first ever match at the new Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, hopes Perelini can add further kudos to the newly-established ESA by bringing the World Cup back from Australia. "Apollo has dedicated two years of his free time to assist in getting Samoa prepared for the World Cup," John Mamea-Wilson, the founder of the ESA, said. "He goes with my full blessing."
pradley@thenational.ae
