Samoa plays Chile at the Rugby World Cup in Bordeaux early Sunday morning (NZ time). Photo: Victor Montalva/Federacion de Rugby Chile via Photosport via AFP
Manu Samoa held on to the pressure and turned the tables on Chile before the end of the first half, laying the foundation for a 43-10 victory over Chile in their opening pool match at the Rugby World Cup in Bordeaux early Sunday morning.
They scored five tries and claimed two extra bonus points in the win, setting them in good position in a pool which England and Japan were victorious in last weekend.
Duncan Paia'aua (41'), Jonathan Taumateine (42'), Fritz Lee (47') and Sama Malolo (52', 81') were the Pacific Islanders try-scorers.
Former Wallaby flyhalf Christian Lealiifano scored 16 points and had the chance to play alongside former All Black opponent Lima Sopoaga colours in the Manu Samoa colours, the two partnering in the second half to drive the Samoans home.
Coach Seilala Mapusua said it was good to start off with the win.
"Really happy to get the win. We had waited to play our first game for a while," he said at the post-match conference.
"To be able to do that and walk away with the maximum points is a great start to our campaign.
"I thought Chile were amazing today and we knew they were gonna be our first game. We knew that we needed to grind out a win.
'It was not the prettiest one but that's absolutely fine by me."
Captain Michael Alalato'a said Chile was tough and paid them respect for the way they came hard at them.
"Chile came out of the blocks firing. They took a lot of energy from the crowd, there's a lot of Chilean [fans] in the crowd," he said.
"Being our first World Cup game, it took us a little bit longer than we needed to get into the game.
"But once we got that try before halftime that swung the match back our way."
Chile pressure
Chile came to play and did not take any step backwards, surprising many in the first 40 minutes that they held their own against their more experienced opponents.
They attacked every time they had the ball in hand and kept putting pressure on the Samoan defence in the first half.
While Samoa took the lead 3-0 after Christian Lealiifano converted a penalty attempt, Chile took the game into their own hands.
A high ball collected by winger José Ignacio Larenas saw them counter and took play deep into the Manu Samoa half.
Their ruck game played well for them and that worked as they harassed Samoa early in the game, putting together some good movement towards the Samoan line.
They scored the first try of the match through Mattias Ditus, who dived over the line following some powerful forward drives and Chile suddenly found themselves 7-3 in the lead after winger Santiago Videla converted the try.
Lealiifano then kicked two penalties to give Manu Samoa the lead again at 9-7, but Chile came straight back into the game and the ensuing penalty saw inside centre Matias Garafulic kick it in for Chile to reclaim the lead 10-9.
Three minutes from halftime Samoa finally managed to get their move right, attacking from a midfield scrum, with fullback Duncan Pala'aua diving over in the corner for their first try.
Lealiifano converted from near the sidelines to give Manu Samoa a 19-10 lead at halftime.
Returning from the break, Manu Samoa then slowly grinded home, taking the Chileans' resistance out step by step.
In the end it proved to be a winner and they outscored their opponents four tries to none in the second half.
Lost balls a concern
But the performance would be worrying to some extent for head coach Mapusua, as he watched his players knock the ball on a number of times during the game.
Mapusua said they would need to improve on their basics before they faced their next pool opponent Argentina.
"We have to nail our basics and we have to really make sure that we be holding on to the ball, because Chile almost punished us today," he said.
"And the opposition coming up if we give them an inch they will take a mile."
In the second half, Samoa turned the heat up in the set pieces and claimed a number of push-over tries from ensuing lineout wins.
Their rolling mauls stood out and they dominated that area of the game.
Captain Alaalato'a said they had prepared to change their game accordingly during the match.
"You know, we prepared for across the board and all parts of our game, and when something is going well you need to back it," he said.
"Once we got into the maul in our first one, we sort of did it again and again and we were able to execute."
Statistics backed Samoa
Manu Samoa's Theo MacFarland was selected Player of the Match, with 14 tackles he made, making him the player with the most tackles in the game.
Full back Duncan Paia'aua made 94 metres in the game, running at every opportunity he got from the back.
While Chile claimed 52 percent of the territory, edging Samoa out on 48 percent the possession was also a close contest, Samoa claiming 51 percent and Chile on 49.
Samoa claimed a total of 410 metres on attack, with Chile on 316m.
For the set pieces battle, Samoa claimed 22 to Chile's 15, winning 15 lineouts and seven scrums.
Chile managed to claim five scrums and 10 lineouts.
On the penalty counts, Chile gave away 17 while Samoa were penalised nine times, resulting in the two teams getting two yellow cards each.
Chile had lost their first game to Japan two Saturdays ago.
New Zealand referee Paul Williams controlled the match, watched by almost 40,000 people at the Stade de Bordeaux.