England forward Mike McMeeken makes 'stand together' vow for Samoa Siva Tau before Headingley Test
England forward Mike McMeeken has spoken out about Samoa’s controiversial pre-match Siva Tau ahead of Saturday’s second Test showdown at AMT Headingley.
McMeeken was among the substitutes last Sunday when England opened the series with a 34-18 win at Wigan. That came after the two sides had gone nose to nose during Samoa’s traditional pre-match war dance.
The Samoan players advanced to within centimetres of their opponents, who were lined up on half-way and the Siva Tau ended with Hull KR half-back Mikey Lewis rubbing heads with Samoa rival Gordon Chan Kum Tong. It made for spectacular viewing, in the stadium and on BBC television, but some fans and pundits have since questioned why England are expected to stand and watch as the opposition strike an early psychological blow. McMeeken, though, reckons the pre-match ritual is also a chance for them to “stand as one”. He insisted: “It’s good to experience things like that. It’s something you can say you’ve faced in your career. I’ve faced it three times now and it’s always an intense thing to watch. We just make sure we stand together as one and respect it as well.”
McMeeken, who will join Wakefield Trinity from Catalans Dragons next season, was off the field when the two sides became involved in heated scenes in the final moments of last weekend’s game. Remarkably, despite a mass confrontation involving almost every player on the pitch, no punches were thrown and England boss Shaun Wane admitted he had “never seen anything like that before”.
McMeeken recalled: “I was on the bench at that point so I literally had a front-row seat. It shows they have got passion and it shows the group of lads we’ve got as well. We are all from different clubs, but we all want the same thing and we are a tight-knit group.”
And while the 30-year-old forward expects Saturday’s showdown to be just as physical, he doesn’t think last week’s scuffle will have any bearing. “It [the second Test] was always going to be a bit spicy,” McMeeken stressed. “We are 1-0 up and they don’t want to be losing 2-0. I expect them to come out all guns blazing from the first minute and I expect it to be intense for the full-80.”
A series-clinching victory on Saturday would go some way to erasing the memory of England’s extra-time defeat by Samoa in a World Cup semi-final two years ago. However, McMeeken said: “We know what went wrong that day, we had a game plan set, but we didn’t execute it.
“In terms of revenge, it’s not that we have to win because of that. We want to win because we want to win the series 2-0, leading into future games against other nations. We just want to keep building and building and making ourselves a better team for the future.”