Samoa bounce back against Canada
Samoa put its off-field concerns to one side to bounce back from defeat against Italy and beat Canada 23-13 on Friday.
Rain was in the air at kick-off but it abated halfway through the opening stanza as both teams looked to keep errors to a minimum in the slippery conditions.
Samoa started the brighter and enjoyed most of the possession and territory early on but would have to wait for their first points as flyhalf Michael Stanley was off-target from the tee on three minutes.
Canada were needing to draw on all their defensive grit to keep Samoa at bay and eventually it was a scrum penalty that created the chance for Stanley to make amends, with the playmaker nailing his second attempt.
What made life tougher for the Canadians was their inability to find touch, which would have relieved the pressure being placed on their line. Ultimately it cost them points as Stanley doubled the margin from in front of the posts.
A quarter of the game had been played when Canada finally enjoyed decent territory, however a snipe from scrumhalf Gordon McRorie unfortunately ended with him being driven into touch by opposite number, Kahn Fotuali'i.
It was a rare foray for the team in the opening half, so when centre Conor Trainor was yellow carded for a deliberate knock down, pressure was expected to be mounted by the Samoans in the final ten minutes before halftime.
Three points would arrive for Stanley on 31 minutes when lock Jamie Cudmore was warned by referee George Clancy but Canada admirably hit back before the interval, with McRorie landing one of his own from the halfway line.
Further encouragement came two minutes after the resumption as McRorie was on-target with his second penalty, reducing the gap to three points.
But he would have a moment to forget thirteen minutes later, when excellent running from centre Trainor, led to his offload heading toward McRorie's hands. Unfortunately, the scrumhalf couldn't hold the pass with the line at his mercy.
It came back to haunt Canada too as Samoa replacement prop Anthony Perenise powered over from a pick-and-go against the run of play, which pushed the islanders into a 10-point advantage with Stanley's conversion.
But they showed excellent spirit to fight their way back to within three points with ten minutes remaining, as from a James Pritchard touch finder, a line-out maul led to the ball being returned to the blindside where Trainor crashed over the whitewash. Pritchard duly converted.
A mistake from Canada at the restart floored their hopes of a comeback as Nanyak Dala's risky pass to replacement Pat Parfrey saw the ball come loose for Samoa's Winston Stanley to cross.
The scorers:
For Samoa:
Tries: Perenise, W Stanley
Cons: M Stanley 2
Pens: M Stanley 3
For Canada:
Try: Trainor
Con: Pritchard
Pens: McRorie 2
Yellow card: Conor Trainor (Canada, 27 – deliberate knock-on)
Teams:
Canada: 15 James Pritchard, 14 Jeff Hassler, 13 Conor Trainor, 12 Ciaran Hearn, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 10 Connor Braid, 9 Gordon McRorie, 8 Jebb Sinclair, 7 Nanyak Dala, 6 Kyle Gilmour, 5 Brett Buekeboom, 4 Jamie Cudmore, 3 Jason Marshall, 2 Aaron Carpenter, 1 Hubert Buydens (captain).
Replacements: 16 Ray Barkwill, 17 Jake Ilnicki, 18 Andrew Tiedemann, 19 Jon Phelan, 20 Richard Thorpe, 21 Sean White, 22 Patrick Parfrey, 23 Jordan Wilson-Ross.
Samoa: 15 Ahsee Tuala, 14 Alofa Alofa, 13 Rey Lee Lo, 12 Alapati Leiua, 11 David Lemi (captain), 10 Michael Stanley, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 Ofisa Treviranus, 7 TJ Ioane, 6 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 5 Dan Leo, 4 Filo Paulo, 3 Census Johnston, 2 Wayne Ole Avei, 1 Zac Taulafo.
Replacements: 16 Maatulimanu Leiataua, 17 Viliamu Afatia, 18 Anthony Perenise, 19 Kane Thompson, 20 Jack Lam, 21 Pele Cowley, 22 Winston Stanley, 23 Faatoina Autagavaia.
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland), Alexandre Ruiz (France)
TMO: Geoff Warren (England)
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