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Samoan Prime Minister compares Manu Samoa rugby team to 'slaves being fed to the lions' ahead of England Test

On the eve of Manu Samoa's game against England, the Samoan Prime Minister has compared his team to slaves entertaining the crowd and then being fed to the lions.

England's Rugby Union is expected to collect around $20 million from the gate and the cash-strapped Samoa Rugby Union want at least 30 percent of that.

England's Rugby Football Union has refused and is instead donating $145,419.71 as a goodwill gesture.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who is also the SRU chairman, says home unions keeping 100 per cent of gate takings is an old system based on "stupidity".

"We have seen all the unions in the south replenish the bank accounts of all the unions in the north and we come back empty-handed," he said.

He said 30 per cent of gate takings of three games in Europe would keep the Samoan Rugby Union going for five years.

The financially-strapped SRU has claimed it's bankrupt, which World Rugby has denied.

The international body has suspended some funding to the island nation over governance concerns.

Tuilaepa says while SRU is grateful for World Rugby's help it's "not to use the money which is due to us as a kind of big stick to hit us if we do not listen to them – we are not a pack of idiots".

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