Samoa celebrates Aussie win
Source: Agencies |
July 18, 2011, Monday
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THE Samoans came to Australia aiming to gain some respect out of a tussle with the Wallabies and build confidence ahead of the World Cup.
They walked out of Sydney's Olympic Stadium with a stunning 32-23 victory yesterday that rated as their biggest upset win to give themselves a massive boost and cause grave concerns for Australia coach Robbie Deans only two months out from the World Cup.
"Today for us was about respect," Samoa assistant coach Brian McLean said. "We wanted to get some respect. Hopefully we've done that."
The Samoans face defending champion South Africa, Wales, Fiji and Namibia in the World Cup, and they're already talking about a rematch with two-time champion Australia after that.
"That's our aim. The way things are set up, if we finish second in our pool and Australia wins their pool, then we would meet them in Wellington in a quarterfinal," McLean said, adding that they'd kept a few tricks in store.
Samoa finished last in the Pacific Nations Cup that finished last week, but didn't field its strongest squad in the four-nation tournament and started yesterday's match with a completely new XV drawn from clubs in Europe, Japan and New Zealand.
"For us it wasn't really about who was in the Wallaby team. It was more about us trying to play a game we could play effectively," McLean said.
"We didn't go in there to upset the Wallabies, we went in there to play our game, the way we play," he added.
The Samoans certainly did that. They were stronger and more aggressive at the breakdown and in defense than an Australian starting lineup that contained four players making their run-on test debuts and was missing most of the Super 15-winning Queensland Reds.
The big win over No. 2-ranked Australia took them to a new level.
Pacific Island teams are renowned for their physical approach to the game, but often can't maintain that intensity for a full 80 minutes against the top-tier nations.
There was no problem with that yesterday as Samoa lead from the third minute and jumped out to a 17-0 buffer within a half-hour.
Amazing
"It's amazing what Adrenalin can do," said center Seilala Mapusua, who marshaled the midfield defense superbly. "We wouldn't have bothered turning up today if we didn't think we could win.
"The guys are willing to die for their jersey. We're very passionate about that. It really carried us through in the last few minutes."
The Samoans performed their war dance, the Siva Tau, before the match and celebrated the victory with another one for their supporters, who sat in big groups among the crowd of 29,808.
"I can only imagine what's going on in the little island a few hours from here," Mapusua said of the celebrations in the country of 180,000 people. "We're always playing for our people every time we pull on that blue jersey.
"Words can't express the support we felt. Just seeing all the people waiting around at the end there, it's huge."
Powerful winger Alesana Tuilagi ran 75 meters virtually untouched on a counterattack from an Australian turnover to score the first try of the match in the 11th minute. He celebrated it with a swan dive before grounding the ball. Fullback Paul Williams charged down Nick Phipps attempting a clearing kick in the 29th and dived on the loose ball in-goal, sending the Samoan fans into a frenzy.
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