Given that we may not yet have a World Cup full of NRL talent if the RLPA and NRL can't agree to some sort of terms, the news of Anthony Milford's absence for Samoa is slightly less dramatic. Of course, any player's strike or not taking part in the World Cup would be the worse case scenario and not having Milford is as much as worse case scenario as any other regarding the World Cup.

Milford has to get shoulder surgery this off-season and after Wayne Bennett came out to say that Milford was highly unlikely to play in the World Cup, Milford still sounded keen. Last week though it became official that Milford will have to have surgery, thus snatching a certified gun play-maker out of what was shaping as a rather strong Samoan team. Just like Aotearoa now have a relative abundance of halves after enduring a lack of halves for years, Samoa are sliding into a similar era where they have some play-making depth and I was eager to see Milford combine with Fa'amanu Brown, behind a robust and skillful forward pack.

Now this looks likely to be Brown's team and the Bulldogs bound half from Christchurch is set to play a dominant hand at this World Cup. Brown has done a job at hooker and in the halves for Cronulla this season, we should expect him to be a certain selection for Samoa in the halves and this makes for a lovely opportunity for Brown to stake his claim for a starting spot with the Doggies. The Bulldogs have sent Josh Reynolds packing and welcome Kieran Foran, then the possible departure of Michael Lichaa could see Moses M'bye move to hooker, thus allowing Brown to earn a starting halves spot. This requires Brown to earn that spot though and as the chief play-maker for Samoa, Brown's in the ideal position to do so.

All is not lost for Samoa as they will likely call on Mason Lino to cover the loss of Milford. Lino enjoyed a decent stint in the NRL this season with the Warriors, so Samoa will get a halfback in Lino who has more NRL experience to his name; as opposed to Lino coming straight out of reserve grade. Pita Godinet is more than capable of partnering Brown in the halves as well and Godinet's experience becomes much more important now with Milford ruled out. 

Erin Clark is also in line to benefit from Milford's absence as he will step in to offer depth having joined Canberra Raiders from the Warriors mid-season where he's mainly been playing in the halves for their Under 20s team.

Clark has played for Samoa previously, as well as playing NRL footy with the Warriors. These opportunities mainly came at hooker though, so we could see Clark selected as a bench utility more often than not. The presence of John Asiata will also ease some of the distribution burden as Asiata has quickly emerged as a skilled ball-playing forward, enough for Cowboys coach Paul Green to give Asiata some game time as a half when the Cowboys were desperate.

Here's a few options for Samoa's spine, sans Milford...

Fullback: Peter Mata'utia, David Nofoaluma.
Halves: Fa'amanu Brown, Mason Lino, Pita Godinet, Erin Clark.
Hooker: Kaysa Pritchard (if fit), Josh McGuire (has played hooker for Samoa previously), Erin Clark, Fa'amanu Brown.

As for our Tongan tokos, they have a far more settled play-making group that is now low key more exciting than a Samoan spine without Milford. The likeliest play-making trio for Tonga is the same that was rolled out earlier this year with Will Hopoate at fullback and a halves combo of Tuimoala Lolohea and Ata Hingano. Tonga even have a few options at dummy half with Sione Katoa doing a fine job for Penrith Panthers this season and Siliva Havili capable of doing the same job. 

Many people had Samoa as a possible darkhorse at the World Cup, yet if I had to chose between Samoa or Tonga as a possible darkhorse, I'd go with Tonga. There's also Fiji and Papa New Guinea who will be lurking, perhaps with even more darkhorse potential than either Samoa or Tonga. In a battle between Samoa and Tonga though, Tonga's looking better right now.

Peace and love 27.

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