Samoa 25 USA 16 highlights: Relive the action from the Pool B clash in Brighton

Relive the action from the Amex Stadium
Getty
Andy Sims20 September 2015

Samoa proved too strong for the United States as they got their World Cup campaign under way with a 25-16 victory.

Tries from Tim Nanai-Williams and Ofisa Treviranus, plus 12 points from the boot of Tusi Pisi, secured a win which was slightly unconvincing for a side with designs on a quarter-final place at least.

Brighton's Amex Stadium had barely stopped reverberating following Japan's historic success over South Africa less than 24 hours earlier.

But while there may have been a sense of 'after the Lord Mayor's show' on the south coast, the intensity on the pitch easily matched Saturday's thriller.

Samoa's Cardiff Blues-bound Rey Lee-Lo was an early casualty, taking a massive hit from opposition centre Thretton Palamo to bring his World Cup debut to an end after less than a minute.

And Samoa drew the first cheers from another near sell-out crowd when Pisi knocked over a penalty to open the scoring nine minutes into the match.

Watch the highlights in full below...

With Samoan pressure building and the USA frantically back-pedalling, the first try arrived in the 20th minute thanks to a neat grubber kick from Pisi.

The fly-half threaded the ball through the legs of American lock Samu Manoa and into the path of Nanai-Williams as he dived over the whitewash.

Pisi missed the conversion but found his range again from in front of the posts after the USA gave away another penalty following a sharp burst from Jack Lam.

The Eagles got on the board after half an hour after a neat running move, led by former Leicester man Blaine Scully, was halted illegally. They opted to shoot for goal rather than touch with AJ MacGinty doing the honours.

MacGinty then led the charge as the States sliced through the Samoan rearguard to cut their arrears further, Seamus Kelly taking over before feeding his captain, Chris Wyles of Saracens, for a slick try.

MacGinty could not convert, however, and another Pisi penalty saw Samoa go in 14-8 ahead at half-time.

Samoa edged further clear after the break, Alesana Tuilagi pouncing upon another kick in behind before setting up captain Treviranus in the corner.

Pisi and MacGinty exchanged further penalties and Michael Stanley added another for Samoa, before Chris Baumann got the ball over from underneath a pile of bodies to reduce the deficit to nine.

It was a valiant effort from the Eagles but ultimately not enough to halt a victorious Samoan side who have far tougher tests to come, not least in the shape of a wounded South Africa next weekend.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT