Sweet victory: Manu Samoa
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Samoa sent a warning shot to their World Cup Pool rivals with a gutsy performance doing for the Wallabies 32-23 at ANZ Stadium on Sunday.
World rugby's second-ranked team were well beaten by the islanders just a week away from their Tri-Nations opener against South Africa.
The impressive Samoans outscored the two-time world champions four tries to two for their first win over Australia in five meetings.
Alesana Tuilagi, Paul Williams, Kane Thompson and George Pisi crossed for the visitors, with fly-half Tusi Pisi adding 12 points with the boot.
The Wallabies scored a try in each half through Digby Ioane and Matt Giteau, but were always struggling after the visitors had raced 17-0 ahead.
Samoa had never before beaten a top-five ranked country - although they have beaten Wales three times, most notably at the 1991 World Cup.
The scorers:
For Australia:
Tries: Ioane, Giteau
Con: Giteau 2
Pen: Giteau 3
For Samoa:
Tries: Tuilagi, Williams, Thompson, G Pisi
Con: T Pisi 3
Pen: T Pisi 2
Australia: 15 Mark Gerrard, 14 Rod Davies, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 Matt Hodgson, 6 Rocky Elsom (c), 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Sitaleki Timani, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Sekope Kepu.
Replacements: 16 James Hanson, 17 Pek Cowan, 18 Dan Vickerman, 19 Scott Higginbotham, 20 Beau Robinson, 21 Will Genia, 22 Kurtley Beale.
Samoa: 15 Paul Williams, 14 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 13 George Pisi, 12 Seilala Mapusua, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 George Stowers, 7 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 6 Taisina Tuifu'a, 5 Daniel Leo, 4 Kane Thompson, 3 Anthony Perenise, 2 Mahonri Schwalger (c), 1 Sakaria Taulafo.
Replacements: 16 Ti'i Paulo, 17 Census Johnston, 18 Filipo Lavea Levi, 19 Manaia Salavea, 20 Brenton Helleur, 21 Eliota Fuimaono Sapolu, 22 James So'oialo.
Referee: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Keith Brown (New Zealand), Vinny Munro (New Zealand)
Comments
schust3r says...
trinats (correct me if im wrong) hahahahaha u sore loser you are exactly the type of aussie that just got smashed by the samoans!!! samoa had 1 week preporation for this game the players came from all over the world england, france, japan, samoa, NZ, and not once did they ever use that as an excuse which just goes to show how humble they are!!!! maybe you should take that as a learning curb mate! + all this BS about aussies having a better team during WC what do you think samoa will be doing???? they will be training together and this time it will be more then 1 week!!! they will only get better so every country that verses samoa in the WC should show them respect otherwise they will just end up like australia!
Posted 14:57 17th July 2011
Celtictenor says...
@JayStarr, rugbylord and others. I love the islanders too, but I am Welsh, and, yes, I am worried ! It has long been a worry of mine that whatever our ability behind the pack, we do not have the physicality in the NH to match SH first choice teams, least of all in Wales. The moans of Stephen Jones of the English Sunday Times moaning about "soft pat-ball" in the SH are long gone and inappropriate, even about Samoa now. I hope Gatland took note and will take appropriate action after his trip, but it is getting a bit late. If only we had the likes of Matfield and Botha on our side ...... But good luck to Samoa, they deserved it - perhaps Aus do not have much strength in depth as they think after all.
Posted 13:58 17th July 2011
jonesy2 says...
also people talking about selecting players from certain super teams cracks me up you are clueless (Jay Starr). has nothing to do with any of that, its to do with if you cant be bothered playing and dont want to be out on the field or pay a slice of respect then a team that plays with immense heart and pride like the islanders will make you pay.
Posted 13:50 17th July 2011
jonesy2 says...
hahaha ok ok ok everyone needs to calm down. i keep seeing "reds rugby blah blah blah" but the fact is this wasnt the reds if anything it was mostly brumbies. secondly lets give some credit to the samoans!! if samoa play like this then they will clean up all the NH teams. and the last point is the wallabies obviously didnt give a stuff and they ended up getting humiliated, serves the players right. but lets face it they will deal with the boks next week, this game was nothing if not a dummy thrown to make everyone think the wallabies arent contenders. as far as lack of depth goes-only NZ has more. basically- well done samoa and very disrespectful disgraceful australia.
Posted 13:40 17th July 2011
JayStarr says...
@ Trinats: Carve a notch out of your desk... (can't believe I'm going to say this...) I... a... gree with you. Bleh.
Jonker acted strangely during that "late tackle" call... It was pointed out by my winner of Worst Super Rugby Referee 2011, so no surprises there... But all Jonker really saw out of the corner of his eye was a very spectacular, very physical LEGAL tackle. He shouldn't have jumped to that conclusion... But maybe it's a good thing cause whats-his-name would've probably suggested a red card!
@ brownie: pre madonna? Is that some musical pop period... like the pre-cambrian? ha ha... I think you meant prima donna - it's Italian for "first lady", which is what they call the lead female star in an opera (hence "acting like a prima donna"). But thanks, gave me a good laugh! :)
Posted 13:39 17th July 2011
kid_diablo says...
even in defeat the aussies are arrogant. commentators: "this will go down as the greatest moment in samoan rugby history"
Posted 13:27 17th July 2011
JayStarr says...
Another thing I just realised: If Samoa beats Wales in Pool D and finish 2nd, who will they most likely face in the QF? Australia! That would be interesting..!
Posted 12:47 17th July 2011
whatisthis says...
if i was welsh i would be worried about the world cup now:)....hope samoa can build on it now and don,t let this be the highlight of their year. qualifying out of the group come september should be...
Posted 12:36 17th July 2011
JayStarr says...
@ rakavi187: Ha ha - I was surprised myself! I think it's because all the Springboks are out! It was really very entertaining - the guys are throwing the ball around like it's a hot potato... especially the young WP players showed some AMAZING skills. There are some elemetry mistakes and knockons etc - because it's more high risk and the guys are young - but it was very entertaining and refreshing to watch after defense-dominated Super Rugby... Watch it quickly, before the Springboks come back!
@ Those people writing Australia off: Don't! You'll be just as bad as them for underestimating Samoa. They made a big mistake picking so many Brumbies/Force/Rebels players - the only momentum these guys had was losing momentum - and you could see by them kicking their penalties for the line that they thought Samoa's set pieces would be weak...
So the fact is they lost because:
a) they picked the wrong players;
b) they were complacent;
c) they came with the wrong game plan; and
d) when the $h!t struck the fan, they didn't have enough experience or winning-mentality to deal with it.
This loss doesn't now mean the Wallabies as a whole should be written off. If they had another game against Samoa next week and picked their best players, they would've probably beaten them convincingly...
All this loss really showed us is that Australia has depth problems - they better hope their key players don't get injured before or during the WC. But with their best players they can still do it, because they've got the easiest run.
After this there will also be no complacency next week. If this loss didn't happen they would've been... but the top guys are going to be smarting now, so they'll come out firing with a point to prove to the world. The Sprinboks can't rely on them being underestimated now... they'll have to fight fire with fire if they want to win.
Posted 12:25 17th July 2011
rugby_lord says...
I really do feel sorry for Wales now. They are going to have a nightmare of a WC with both Fiji and Samoa in their pool. SA will handle the physical exchanges much better so they probably will make it through. Australia gave no respect to Samoa today and were made to pay. Wonder what this will do to their ranking?
Posted 12:18 17th July 2011
dolgun says...
Well done Samoa!!!
Perhaps the Aussies were too busy thinking about their RWC bonus!!
The Australian commentators are a disgrace and completely unprofessional - who wants to listen to these guys? Many a super rugby game has been ruined for the viewer due to these complete pillocks.
Fantastic confidence builder for Samoa heading into the RWC and I bet Ireland fancy their chances after watching this.
Posted 11:51 17th July 2011
brownie says...
Awesome result gotta love the islanders they play with so much pride in the jersey cant wait to see them go at the world cup. As for the wallabies what bunch of jumped up pre madonnas (especially the brumbies players) Wonder what they were doing in the dressing rooms before the game apart from there hair and make up? They def werent getting fired up to play one of the most physical teams in world rugby and got what they deserved
Posted 11:47 17th July 2011
blackie007 says...
The Walabies deserved to eat their own vomit in front of their home crowd, too arrogant and if there are more reds players in the team htan the Brumbies, Force and Rebels, it would have been a different story, but coz the coach is too dumb and proud, the Walabies got served! The Samoans are just playing their game and they won, cos they come to play and that's how it should have been!...........but over all....watch for the men in black!
Posted 11:45 17th July 2011
carpelone says...
@ Trinats
Good comment. According to you, who should be in the Oz's backline in the RWC, then? It seems that the 12-13 combination is your weak point.
In any case, I think that during both the TriNations and the RWC will be a total different story
Posted 11:44 17th July 2011
dylster says...
@ rugbylover11
love your optimism mate! there might be a team in black who have something to say about that.....and Im not talking about England!!
AWESOME work Samoa, so wish Id seen the game. Wow cant believe how on the money Lomu's call might end up being (check PRs article).
Got to love that Islander flair - Chhhhaaaa-hhhuuuuuu!!
Posted 11:41 17th July 2011
abfixit says...
I did not see the match but watched the first 35 minutes of the replay. What a great spectacle for Pacific Islands rugby. Love it. Manu Samoa - please keep up the momentum for the RWC, we really enjoy your game. Very well done.
Posted 11:34 17th July 2011
carpelone says...
@ Islandpower
You took me for somebody else. Read my post on the preview. It looked like the build-up of Wales vs Samoa last November. If you do not accept the physical contest, you loose the match.
Posted 11:34 17th July 2011
Dwayne says...
There's no positives from this wannabe supporters, none!. So sick of listening to the Wanabes talk themselves up. 1 win in 10 last year, gonna win it all. Reds win with an asterix, gonna win it all. There's a very dark and gloomy cloud over Australia now. How do you think Cooper would have gone. he would have been absolutely snapped in half.
Posted 11:21 17th July 2011
adamk says...
Gutted I missed this!
Posted 11:06 17th July 2011
carpelone says...
Was cooking my poikie during the match, I am sure it will taste beautifully.
Jaystarr, well done. You guessed it correctly, hope you it right also for the Bok's tour.
Posted 10:59 17th July 2011