Samoa 43-10 Chile: Second-half rout secures bonus-point win

AFP via Getty Images
Alex Young @alexwsyoung16 September 2023

Samoa got their Rugby World Cup campaign up and running with an impressive win over a battling Chile side.

Samoa came from behind to score four tries and secured a 43-10 victory, and a bonus point, to go top of Pool D.

They endured a slow start before outclassing the tournament debutants with backline craft and forward power to get their campaign off to a winning start at Stade de Bordeaux on Saturday.

Samoa delighted the massed ranks of their exuberant fans by scoring the opening try of the match through prop Matias Dittus and Samoa needed the place-kicking of Christian Leali'ifano to creep ahead towards the end of the first half.

Tries from fullback Duncan Paia'aua and scrumhalf Jonathan Taumateine immediately before and after halftime gave the Pacific islanders some breathing room and two tries from rolling mauls secured the bonus point.

Despite backing up from their loss to Japan last Sunday and having two players sin-binned, the Chileans continued to fight and had the better of a scrappy final quarter until Samoa's reserve hooker Sama Malolo scored his second try late on.

Additional reporting by Reuters.

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