Nepo Laulala and his wife in tears after prop's inclusion in All Blacks' World Cup squad

We’ve long heard about the jubilation and emotion that players and their families experience when they are named in the All Blacks.

That reaction was amplified for prop Nepo Laulala and his family today as he was named in the 31-man squad for the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

1 NEWS was at the Laulala home for the announcement this afternoon, capturing the moment the Samoa-born giant and his wife Loriana and young baby embraced in tears.

“Like you said it’s a very special moment, I feel very humbled and honoured to represent our country, my family, especially my God who made this all possible,” Laulala said.

Loriana was happy to admit she was the more emotional.

“I always am, I always get nervous about this, you can never be too sure whether the big boss is happy or not,” she said.

“This has always been Nepo’s goal to make the World Cup and to be part of that throughout his journey, to see what he’s been through makes us so proud.”

The emotion stems from a journey that saw Laulala miss out on selection for the 2015 RWC and then undergo three major surgeries including a knee reconstruction in 2016 and a broken arm last year.

"For my knee especially, it was pretty tough there were a couple of times where I thought I wasn’t going to get it strong enough to play at that high level."

“With my forearm, it was a bit tougher than with my knee because I wasn’t expecting it to be tough to come back, I had to have two surgeries on it.”

“Just sticking at it even through those tough times, it’s the way you act through those tough times that make the ups that much sweeter.”

After embracing his wife and baby, Laulala was on the phone to speak with his parents back in Samoa.

“My biggest driver was seeing them (my parents) happy for me, seeing them proud,” he said.

Through all the emotion this afternoon, Laulala said he was quick to switch his focus.

“As soon as I heard back my name, I was pretty quick to switch back, there’s a bigger job at hand here,” he said.

“We’re carrying the weight of our country now, and our families, head back down now and do the work that needs to be done.”