Wallabies hold off Samoa in Sydney

David Skippers

The Wallabies were made to work hard for a 34-15 win over a spirited Samoa side in their Rugby World Cup warm-up encounter in Sydney on Saturday.

Although they were the better team on the day, the home side will not be happy with their overall performance as they went off the boil during the early stages of the second half after holding a 22-3 lead at half-time. Samoa hit back after the break, before a strong finish from the Wallabies sealed their win.

In the end, Australia outscored their visitors by six tries to two with Adam Coleman, Marika Koroibete, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Lukhan Salakai-Loto, Dane Haylett-Petty and Matt To’omua dotting down, while Bernard Foley added two conversions.

For Samoa, Dwayne Polataivao scored a brace of tries and Tusi Pisi slotted a conversion and a penalty.

The match started brightly for Australia, who opened the scoring in the eighth minute courtesy of Coleman, who crossed for an easy try out wide after the ball went through numerous phases in the build-up.

The home side’s dominance continued as the half progressed and in the 16th minute Koroibete set off on mazy run inside Samoa’s half and beat five defenders before scoring his side’s second try.

10 minutes later Samoa thought they has opened their account when Michael Alaalatoa went over the whitewash from close quarters but his effort was disallowed after David Pocock was taken out in an off-the-ball incident at the preceding ruck.

The referee had spotted a Wallabies infringement in the build-up, however, and Pisi slotted the resulting penalty to open the visitors’ account.

That did not deter Australia, who continued to attack, and on the half-hour mark Ashley-Cooper got his name onto the scoresheet after diving onto a perfectly-weighted grubber kick from To’omua behind Samoa’s try-line.

And in the 35th minute, the Wallabies hammered home their advantage when Salakaia-Loto powered his way over the try-line from 10 metres out. Foley succeeded with his first conversion and the Wallabies had their tails up at half-time.

The visitors were more competitive after the interval, however, and held the upper-hand during the early stages of the half. In the 53rd minute, Afaesetiti Amosa made a break off the back of a scrum on Australia’s 22-metre line before offloading to Polataivao, who had an easy run-in over the try-line.

That score seemed to boost the visitors’ confidence and on the hour-mark Rey Lee-Lo made a telling break which had the Wallabies on the back-foot inside their 22. He did well to offload to Ahsee Tuala and he got a pass out to Polataivao, who crossed for his second try.

Those tries meant Samoa were back in the game with the Wallabies holding a slender 22-15 lead but the home side upped the ante on attack during the final quarter and were rewarded with late tries from Haylett-Petty and To’omua which secured them the result.

The scorers:

For Australia:
Tries: Coleman, Koroibete, Ashley-Cooper, Salakaia-Loto, Haylett-Petty, To’omua
Cons: Foley 2

For Samoa:
Tries: Polataivao 2
Con: Pisi
Pen: Pisi

Australia: 15 Tom Banks, 14 Dane Haylett-Petty, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Matt To’omua, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Will Genia, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 David Pocock (c), 6 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Jordan Uelese, 1 James Slipper
Replacements: 16 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 17 Scott Sio, 18 Taniela Tupou, 19 Luke Jones, 20 Liam Wright, 21 Rob Valetini, 22 Nick Phipps, 23 James O’Connor

Samoa: 15 Tim Nanai-Williams, 14 Belgium Tuatagaloa, 13 Alapati Leiua, 12 Reynold Lee-Lo, 11 Ed Fidow, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Scott Malolua, 8 Afaesetiti Amosa, 7 Jack Lam (c), 6 TJ Ioane, 5 Kane Leaupepe, 4 Teofilo Paulo, 3 Michael Alaalatoa, 2 Ray Niuia, 1 Jordan Lay
Replacements: 16 Motu Matu’u, 17 Paul Alo-Emile, 18 Logovi’i Mulipola, 19 Josh Tyrell, 20 Seilala Lam, 21 Dwayne Polataivao, 22 AJ Alatimu, 23 Ahsee Tuala

Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand), Cam Stone (New Zealand)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)

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