'Feels like home': Netta aiming to lead Fetū Sāmoa to World Cup

Fetū Sāmoa captain Annetta-Claudia Nu’uausala admits it would be a dream to lead the Pacific nation to the World Cup in 2026 but if they do qualify, she plans to hand the reins back to Niall Williams-Guthrie.

Nu’uausala has taken over the captaincy from the injured Williams-Guthrie for Saturday’s World Cup qualifying match against Tonga at Suva’s HFC Stadium and declared the honour to be a career highlight.

“It's everything, honestly. For a lot of us, it's a personal goal to even make this team alone for me to captain,” Nu’uausala said.

“It's been everything that I've ever wanted. It’s very unexpected, but I love it. I love leading my little nation.”

The winner of the Test will meet the victor in next Saturday night’s match between Fiji and Cook Islands in a play-off at Auckland’s Go Media Stadium on November 2 for a place in the World Cup.

The runner-up gets a second shot at RLWC2026 qualifying via the 2025 World Series, but the losers of the matches in Fiji are both eliminated.

“We're always trying our best to do everything we possibly can to make a name for our small nation and for me to lead them into a World Cup would be an absolute dream, but I'm only here until Niall's back,” Nu’uausala said.

“I'm just a fill in captain for now.”

Williams-Guthrie is in camp with Samoa as a member of Jamie Soward’s coaching staff and has been mentoring the many new faces in the team from last year’s 26-12 Pacific Championships defeat of Fiji.

That match was the first for the Fetū' since consecutive Tests against New Zealand in 2019 and 2020, and before those they had hosted the Jillaroos in 2011.

As a result, Samoa are 24th of 27 nations with women’s teams in the IRL World Rankings but if they qualify for the World Cup their position will skyrocket.

“We’ve got a lot of debutants this year, who we have been trying to get around,” Nu’uausala said.

“It was an easy decision for them to come over, it's not something that we had to like beg them to do.

“They were in as soon as they were asked, so that's the kind of commitment that we needed for this game and moving forward for Samoa.”

Among the debutants is 2022 World Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist Evania Pelite, while Queensland Origin team-mate Destiny Brill is also in the squad and Nu’uausala played 12 Tests for the Kiwi Ferns before switching to Samoa.

“I grew up in New Zealand but both my parents are Samoans,” Nu’uausala said. “I’ve got a bit of Chinese and a bit of Solomon Island but I'm a big proud Samoan girl on both sides of my family.

“Coming from the Kiwis, my family were proud of me, obviously, but this means a lot more. It feels like home; just more authentic, just being myself and being one with my culture.

“The camp has been really good, this time we've become more in touch with our culture. We've added a lot more prayer time and culture time so for me personally, it's been awesome to just be in touch again with my culture.

“We're just hoping that we make our, make Samoa proud.”