12 Samoans who lit up the Gallagher Premiership

The winger qualifies for this select group via his Samoan heritage. He also played more Tests for Samoa than he did for New Zealand but, above all else, taught everyone at Wigan and Newcastle Falcons what class looked like regardless of the code he was playing. He's still talked about two decades on from Newcastle’s title-winning heyday.

In his first season at Newcastle, he made 22 appearances as they won the 1997-98 Premiership. However, after that triumph he moved on to Northampton Saints, with whom he won the 1999–2000 Heineken Cup Lam moved back to Newcastle Falcons for the 2001–02 season, playing with the club for a year before retiring.

Fotuali’i has extended his stay at Bath Rugby just this week. The 35-year-old scrum-half joined from Northampton Saints in the summer of 2016 and quickly became one of the club's most influential players. The Samoan international was named Best Back and Supporters’ Player of the Year at the end-of-season awards.

Widely recognised as one of the hardest tacklers in the game. he dubuted for Western Samoa in 1995 during a tour of the UK,catching the eye of Nigel Melville's and was signed by Wasps in 1997, where he quickly became something of a cult figure for his uncompromising approach on the field of play, his colourful hair styles and his friendly nature off the pitch.

Fanolua played for Gloucester for ten years and became a member of the 100 league games club. Whilst at Gloucester he started in the 2003 Powergen Cup Final in which Gloucester defeated Northampton Saints.

In 1996, he left for the UK to take up a professional rugby league contract with Castleford Tigers. However, after one season, he moved codes to Bedford Blues, helping them achieve promotion to the premiership in 1998. In 1999 he moved to Gloucester Rugby, joining his cousin Fanolua. He remained there for five years, helping the club win the Powergen Cup in 2003, before leaving to rejoin Bedford as a coach in 2004.

Fuimaono-Sapolu moved to England in January 2006, signed by Bath Rugby after outstanding performances in the internationals against Scotland (his international debut) and England. He had initially been signed as a temporary replacement to cover for the players playing in the Six Nations Championship but soon his contract was made permanent. He then had a stint at Gloucester as well.

Tani joined Quins in 2000 and made his debut as a replacement against London Wasps on 9 September that year before going on to make well over 100 appearances in a decade stint at the club. He retired from playing after a benefit year organised at Harlequins in 2010 and returned to New Zealand.

The powerful tighthead prop, who was renowned as one the games fiercest scrummagers, played club rugby for Wasps, Harlequins, Saracens and Worcester Warriors in the Aviva Premiership, making well over 100 combined appearances.

Well known for his time with Leicester and Newcastle, Tuilagi was an incredibly strong player, using his blend of pace and power to good effect. The big Samoan was simply unstoppable at his best.

He initially moved to France in February 2011 as a medical joker for Gavin Williams, before then movung on to sign for Northampton for the 2011/12 season, and was named in the Aviva Premiership Dream Team during after his first season at the club. He's now accumulated 141 appearances for the Saints.

Both his brothers, Tusi Pisi and Ken Pisi, have also played in the Premiership for Bristol and Northampton respectively.

Weighing 75 kg and only 1.75m tall, he is one of the smaller professional rugby players. However, his electric pace and low centre of gravity enabled him to be the 2nd highest Premiership try scorer for the 2005-06 season; and top scorer in the 2006-07 season while playing for Bristol. He then had a stint at Wasps, Glasgow and Worcester before rejoining Bristol.