Two yellow cards in the second half disrupted Tonga’s campaign as they went down 25-17 to Samoa at Apia Park last Saturday.

“I think the penalties and the two yellow cards did it for us in the end,” Tongan coach Toutai Kefu told World Rugby.

“It’s good to just get a go together under our belts and that’s the main thing. I don’t think anyone has played in those conditions before so it’s good to experience but hopefully, it doesn’t happen again but like I said we’ll take some positives and some things to work on.”

Just over 10 minutes were on the clock when former Worcester Warriors and Bath centre Cooper Vuna crossed the whitewash. James Faiva was unable to add extras, allowing Ulupano Seutini to reduce the arrears to two points with a 22nd-minute penalty.

Johnny Vaili then missed the opportunity to give Samoa the lead and on the stroke of half-time prop Ben Tameifuna touched down to extend the Tonga advantage to 10-3.

That lead was wiped out early in the second half as Seutini converted Alapati Leiua’s try before adding a penalty to nudge Samoa in front.

On the hour mark replacement hooker Sefo Sakalia crashed over to score a try that was converted by Faiva, and put Tonga back into the lead. However, with less than 13 minutes of the match remaining Fotu Lokotui was sent to the sin bin and Tonga were reduced to 13 men just three minutes later as Sakalia was also shown yellow.

Samoa took full advantage of their opponents’ indiscipline, as Afaesetiti Amosa and Belgium Tuatagaloa scored tries in the final 10 minutes to confirm victory.

Samoa coach Steve Jackson said: “I’m pretty proud of the effort the boys put in. In these trying conditions we knew it was going to be tough.

“We knew that they had a really big forward pack. “They’ve got to be proud of the way they played the game and the decisions they made and their game management from our players.”

CANADA 19-47 USA

It was a sad day for Canada as they went down 47-19 to USA in Glendale yesterday.

The Canadians had the better start to the game, but even after holding the ball for lengthy periods of time and controlling the territory, they found themselves 20-nil down at half-time.

Canadian captain Tyler Ardron said:

“We’ve got to get our bodies right for the World Cup, we got exposed today and that’s probably one of the best things that can happen early in this competition.”

Edited by Sheldon Chanel

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