The heavy opening round loss Samoa suffered to host nation England was certainly unexpected, and it appears the team is now in media lockdown after it was revealed under-fire coach Matt Parish has restricted access to his playing group ahead of their next game.
According to the Daily Telegraph, media requests to attend Samoan training sessions were ‘met with a response suggesting coach Matt Parish wasn't keen to have the media grilling his players' following his team's poor performance in the heavy defeat.
Though they still have plenty of time to turn things around, Samoa were completely outclassed in their opening clash, failing to live up to the mountain of hype that had developed around the team after bringing together such a talented squad.
“There's a lot of hype around Samoa and what we're hoping to do, and we're disappointed,” five-eighth Jarome Luai told Love Rugby League following the loss.
“We've got to move on and remember this feeling in the games to come.”
The opening loss isn't the only thing the team has to overcome, after losing Tyrone May, Braden Hamlin-Uele and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow in the first game.
The Telegraph also reports that the England camp have blocked Australian media requests to interview Kai Pearce-Paul, the youngster touted as the ‘next Sonny Bill', who is expected to join the Newcastle Knights in 2023 or 2024.
