Samoa A Wallops Tonga A
Tonga A out of the running.
The Samoa A side registered their first win in the 2018 World Rugby Pacific Challenge after walloping Tonga A 40-10 at the ANZ Stadium yesterday.
Tonga A scored the first try of the match through winger Fetuli Paea to lead 5-0 in the 6th minute.
Samoa A fullback Ricky Ene raced away and scored a beautiful try a few minutes later and a successful conversion from D’Angelo Leiulia gave them a 7-5 lead.
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- Mesala Seumalo dives a meter shot of Tonga A try-line during 2018 World Rugby Pacific Challenge at ANZ Stadium on March 13, 2018. Photo: Ronald Kumar.
Bursting winger Tuhakavalu Ika scored Tonga’s second try from a drive to give them a 10-7 lead but sheer determination from the Samoans saw them score two more tries through Faasauvale Lucky and Captain Henry Stowers to lead 19-10 at halftime.
Samoa A completely dominated the second half and scored three converted tries through fullback Ene, hooker Gafa Suva and halfback Iosua Faalele to register the big win for the day.
Samoa A Captain Henry Stowers said they finished off well yesterday but there are other few things to work on.
“We will need to work on our set piece and restarts, we have been working on our fitness for the past five weeks,” Towers said.
“Keeping a cool mind in those moments really helped us.”
Stower was impressed with the young player’s performance.
“ I thought they were amazing got their first start today(yesterday) and they came on and did an outstanding job for the team especially on our front row.”
Meanwhile Tonga captain Sione Lolohea earlier stated the importance of his team to go back home and develop the young players.
Samoa A will play Junior Japan in their final match at 1pm on Saturday while Tonga A who are officially out title contentionafter two losses will play the Fiji Warriors at 3.30pm.
Edited by Anasilini Ratuva
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