[2] They were formerly members of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance (PIRA) along with Fiji and Tonga.

There are 12 provincial unions made up of around 120 clubs and boasting nearly 5,000 senior and twice as many junior players in a country with a population of just under 175,000 people.

The main domestic tournament is the Samoa National Provincial Championship.

The Samoa national rugby union team perform a traditional Samoan challenge called the siva tau before each game.

[6] In November 2017, Samoa's prime minister and union chairman Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi announced that the organisation was bankrupt,[7] although those claims were denied by world governing body World Rugby.