Samoa kicks off with five-try victory

MATCH REPORT: Samoa started their World Cup 2023 journey with a five-try 43-10 Pool D victory over Chile at Stade de Bordeaux on Saturday.

Despite outside-centre Ulupano Junior Seuteni receiving a yellow card and Chile prop Matias Dittus scoring a try, Samoa led 19-10 at half-time thanks to four penalties by former Australia flyhalf Christian Leali’ifano and a try through fullback Duncan Paia’aua.

Samoa scored three second-half tries, two coming from the driving maul and another through scrum-half Jonathan Taumateine.

Yellow cards were also exchanged, with Chile replacement second-row Alfonso Escobar and replacement prop Esteban Inostroza and Samoa replacement scrum-half Ereatara Enari all sent to the sin-bin.

Replacement prop Sama Malolo scored his second try of the game just before the final whistle.

“I thought the first half we were a bit sloppy but in the second half the boys really showed up and we’re happy to come away with a win,” said Player of the Match Theo McFarland.

“It’s always an honour to pull on the jersey for Samoa.”

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A master from the kicking tee 🎯

An impressive points haul on Christian Leali’ifano’s RWC debut for Samoa#RWC2023 | #SAMvCHI pic.twitter.com/2HOQXpMCNn

— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) September 16, 2023

Seilala Mapusua, head coach of Samoa, was happy to kick off their World Cup with a win.

“Great to get our campaign under way. A lot to take from that game and we’ll be reviewing it. Full credit to Chile, they really took it to us today and put us under pressure and that’s exactly what we needed.”

“Probably a few words [at half-time] I can’t say on live TV, just about trusting our structures and our processes and finishing off our combinations, so it was good to see the boys come out and do that,” the coach comments on his side’s lacklustre first half performance.

Scorers:

For Samoa:
Tries: Paia’aua, Taumateine, Lee, Malolo 2
Cons: Lealiifano 2, Sopoaga
Pens: Lealiifano 4

For Chile:
Try: Dittus
Cons: Videla
Pens: Garafulic

Yellow cards: Ulupano Junior Seuteni (Samoa, 6’ – cynical play), Enari (Samoa, 64’ – cynical play), Esteban Inostroza (Chile, 70’), Alfonso Escobar (Chile, 63’)

Teams:

Samoa: 15 Duncan Paia’aua, 14 Danny Toala, 13 Ulupano Junior Seuteni, 12 Tumua Manu, 11 Nigel Ah-Wong, 10 Christian Leali’ifano, 9 Jonathan Taumateine, 8 Steven Luatua, 7 Fritz Lee, 6 Taleni Seu, 5 Theo McFarland, 4 Chris Vui, 3 Michael Alaalatoa (captain), 2 Seilala Lam, 1 James Lay.
Replacements: 16 Sama Malolo, 17 Jordan Lay, 18 Paul Alo-Emile, 19 Sam Slade, 20 Sa Jordan Taufua, 21 Ereatara Enari, 22 Lima Sopoaga, 23 Ed Fidow.

Chile: 15 Inaki Ayarza, 14 Santiago Videla, 13 Domingo Saavedra, 12 Matias Garafulic, 11 José Ignacio Larenas, 10 Rodrigo Fernandez, 9 Marcelo Torrealba, 8 Raimundo Martínez, 7 Clemente Saavedra, 6 Martín Sigren (captain), 5 Santiago Pedrero, 4 Pablo Huete, 3 Matias Dittus, 2 Tomas Dussaillant, 1 Javier Carrasco.
Replacements: 16 Diego Escobar, 17 Salvador Lues, 18 Esteban Inostroza, 19 Javier Eissmann, 20 Alfonso Escobar, 21 Ignacio Silva, 22 Benjamin Videla, 23 Pablo Casas.

Referee: Paul Williams (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), James Doleman (New Zealand)
TMO: Brett Cronan (Australia)