Top 14 strugglers raid Moana Pasifika for Samoa hooker Sama Malolo

Samoa hooker Sama Malolo has enjoyed a well-travelled career since signing an academy contract with the Western Force seven years ago, and he is set to tick off another country by moving to France next season.

Malolo, 26, who is playing for Moana Pasifika in the Super Rugby Pacific, is tipped by Prime Rugby in France to be moving to the foot of the Pyrenees next season to sign for Perpignan, who have lost four of ten games this season.

The Auckland native has been lined up for a move to the Stade Aime Giral to replace another Samoan international, Seilala Lam, the cousin of Bristol Bears boss Pat Lam, who is out of contract at the end of the season.

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Perpignan have already confirmed the signings of Fijian back row Peceli Yato from Clermont Auvergne and South African fly-half Tristan Tedder, who made his first appearance of the season from Racing 92 on Sunday.

Former Australia under-20 international Malolo, who scored two tries in ten games last season, grew up in Sydney and qualifies for Samoa on ancestry grounds made 13 international appearances and scored four tries.

He bounced around the Melbourne Rebels, Suntory Sungoliath in Japan, the Utah Warriors and San Diego Legion in America, and then to the New South Wales Waratahs before walking away from the game completely in 2022 to work as a sign installer.

“I went through a massive mental and emotional ride that year, and I needed to just get away from it, reset. The hardest part was that there was no dream for me to hold on to,” said Malolo. “So I didn’t understand why I was going through so much mental and emotional adversity. There was no big picture. There was no target. I just felt like the emotional ride wasn’t warranted,” he told ABC in Australia earlier this year.