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Samoa come good in the second half to see off plucky Russia

Samoa got their World Cup off to a win over Russia (Photo by Levan Verdzeuli/Getty Images)

Samoa began their World Cup campaign with a bonus-point 34-9 victory over Russia. After a faltering first half, Steve Jackson’s side emerged from the break with a renewed energy to score six tries overall and deny Russia a foothold at the Kumagaya Rugby Stadium.

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“It was a tough game,” Samoan captain Chris Vui said at full-time. “We knew that Russia were going to come in that first 40 (minutes), that first 20 (minutes). We just had to stick it out and I’m pretty proud of how the boys came back in the second half.”

Samoa’s Alapati Leiua scored the only try of a first half that saw the Pacific Islanders become a depleted force for nearly 10 minutes. Both Rey Lee-Lo and Motu Matu’u were sent to the sin bin for high tackles on Vasily Artemyev, with referee Romain Poite deciding a yellow card was sufficient despite apparent contact with the Russian’s head.

The Bears added their first points to the board with two penalties from Yury Kushnarev, but still entered the break with just a narrow one-point lead over their opposition.

Samoa eventually hit their stride as the second half began, scoring three tries in just eight minutes. Afaeseiti Amosa was responsible for the first, before Ed Fidow produced two tries in quick succession and Samoa began to ease into a comfortable lead.

(Continue reading below…)

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An effort from Lee-Lo and a second try for Leiua sealed the victory as Russia could only respond with a Kushnarev drop goal and were left trailing by 25 points. “We’re here to create a legacy,” said Vui. “You can see there that we didn’t let any tries in, I’m proud of the boys.”

Samoa now hold on to a narrow lead in Pool A, bettering Ireland and host nation Japan on points difference only. Scotland sit second from bottom having played one and lost one, while Russia are last with two games and two losses to their name.

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– Press Association 

WATCH: The trailer for the new RugbyPass documentary, Tonga: Road To Japan

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JW 1 hour ago
Reds vs Blues: Ex-All Black missed the mark, Lynagh’s Wallabies statement

Agree re Lynagh.


Disagree Beaver got it wrong. Blues made that look easy. It might be a brawn over brains picture though? More in the last point, but, and this may have changed by player selection, the Reds were very lucky this game. Tele’a should not have been red carded as Ryan landed on his shoulder, and both Tate and Jock (was it) should have been yellowed carded for their offenses in stopping tries. We also had a try dissallowed by going back 10 phases in play. We all should have learned after the RWC that that is against the rules. So straight away on this simple decisions alone the result changes to go in the Blues favour, away from home and playing fairly poorly. The sleeping giant if you will. I didn’t agree with the Blues take either tbh, but to flip it around and say it’s the Reds instead is completely inaccurate (though a good side no doubt you have to give them a chance).


And you’re also riding the wave of defense wins matches a bit much. Aside from Dre’s tackling on Rieko I didn’t see anything in that match other than a bit of tiny goal line defending. I think if you role on the tap for another second you see the ball put placed for the try (not that I jump to agree with Eklund purely because he was adamant), and in general those just get scored more often than not. They are doing something good though stopping line breaks even if it is the Blues (and who also got over the line half a dozen times), I did not expect to be greeted with that stat looking at the game.

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