England’s nightmare would have no end if the Samoan team they face in Nantes on Saturday could call on every great Samoan player in the game. But it could also continue at the hands of those who are available to them. I promise you that as the Samoan team watched the England-South Africa match, the hairs on the back of their necks began to prickle in anticipation and hunger. England will face full Samoan fury (after Samoa and Tonga have had their own South Seas storm today in Montpellier).

It is an idle dream, but a persistent one. Just how great would Samoa be if they had ever been allowed to choose all their eligible players? In my opinion, they could well by now, tiny islands or not, have become world champions. It is hardly a shock that Samoans as a race, and especially Samoan rugby players, flock to New Zealand. It is life, and a living. It is said that the salary of the lowest grade of professional rugby player in New Zealand (a player in the provincial championship, a step below the Super 14) is roughly 13 times the average wage in Samoa.

There are also even higher rewards. For a Samoan to become an All Black, and so very many have, is to make a fortune, in profile and finance. It is also the most fabulous good fortune for Kiwis that they are the nearest country of any commercial strength to the most remarkable rugby nursery in the world, bar none. Bryan Williams, Olo Brown, Michael Jones, Va’aiga Tuigamala and Tana Umaga are all in the pantheon of All Black greats, yet all could have played their whole careers for Samoa. Five of the New Zealand squad at this World Cup were born in Samoa.

Ah, what might have been! I once asked Junior Paramore, a Samoa hero who stayed loyal, if he ever dreamed the dream. “Jeez mate,” he said. “You can’t get too caught up with that stuff, but now and again when it’s quiet I sit down and think what we could have done if Buncey [Frank Bunce] and all those other guys had stayed.”

Yet in one sense it is those who have turned down those riches who are most to be feared, because they are consumed with the honour of representing Manu Samoa. They tend to fight with a raw selflessness which relegates way down their priorities the instinct for self-preservation. They feel it so deep that they can often hardly put it into words. Alesana Tuilagi, the striking Leicester and Samoa wing, puts it as well as anybody. “Samoa is not a big noise in the world,” he says. “But in rugby we can show that we have something to say.”

Great heroes such as Pat Lam, Terry Fanolua, George Leaupepe, Apollo Perelini and Paramore passed up a fortune, and gave every shred for their country. So, more recently, have others. There is some kind of living to be made now when playing for Samoa, funding from the IRB for preparation and there has been match practice in the new Pacific Six Nations.

But it is still passion that drives it, and still passion that England should fear. There is also natural power and footballing ability, and a master of the basics that almost mimics the excellence of the All Blacks. The current squad has the fierce Tuilagi brothers. The giant Henry’s hour at No 8 against South Africa last Sunday was monumental, until his lack of match fitness told. Yet they also have enough back-line talent to sink a battleship. Seilala Mapusua and Elvis Seveali’i, of London Irish and Sale respectively and who form the centre pairing against Tonga today, are accomplished players, yet neither made the starting team for the Springbok match. Dale Rasmussen, the Worcester centre who was, for me, the player of the last English season, cannot even make the squad. There is a cornerstone up front in the gigantic Census Johnston, the tighthead prop.

They are by no means a great side at all points. They lost 59-7 to South Africa, and though they were competitive in the first half, they ran out of steam quite alarmingly in the second half when, surprisingly, they seemed short of endurance fitness. You would imagine that their best chance would be to run England around, but they cannot do that unless they are equipped in the lungs. They were also diabolical in the lineout. England will be drooling over the videos. It is hard, when you are tiring, knowing that you dare not kick the ball out of play. They were trying to bring off trick plays in the lineout in the opening stages, let alone as the match wore on, and apart from Dan Leo, the tall flanker, they had not a single target man. Sometimes on their throw they remained earthbound and a full Springbok lifting pod almost taunted them with the ease of the steal.

But it was not all that it seemed. England must not be fooled. Samoa, as the authorities tacitly admitted, were roasted by the referee, Paul Honiss, whose continued appointment for big rugby games continues to stagger. At the start of the second half, with South Africa leading 21-7, Samoa attacked, scored what looked then, and on replays, a perfectly good try – a fact confirmed by Paddy O’Brien, the tournament referee manager. Honiss got it horribly wrong, made other blunders soon after, awarded South Africa a try which should have been ruled out, and Samoa had the stuffing knocked out of them.

England should win but I believe it will be close, and that Samoa may come close to disproving the theory that modern-day excellence in Test rugby depends on funding, technology, time together, endless fretting over tiny detail, and pay cheque. Sometimes, it depends on will and your love affair with your own people, and their struggle. England beware.