Samoa caused quite a stir amongst the world of rugby as they recorded an unlikely victory against two-time World Cup winners Australia on Sunday. A victory in itself would not have been so surprising, Samoa along with a number of other Pacific Island sides have gained a great deal of credibility over the last decade, but the relatively comfortable 32-23 score-line will have shocked the majority of the sporting community.
When you also consider that the Wallabies scored thirteen of their twenty-three points in the ten minute time period that Daniel Leo spent in the sin-bin following a series of repeat infringements at the ruck, suddenly it becomes an even more remarkable result – but Samoa won't be letting themselves get too carried away by this one-off result. Fans of the Betfair 2011 Rugby World Cup shouldn't either.
Speaking after the match, try-scorer Alesana Tuliagi cut a proud figure, but played down the significance of the result in terms of the Australians' chances at the upcoming World Cup.
“The main focus this week was to believe in ourselves. We came out here just to win this game. We knew it was going to be a tough game but we believed in ourselves and, thank God, we did it today," he said.
Samoa line up in Group D of this autumn's World Cup – due to get underway on September 9th in Auckland, New Zealand – against current champions South Africa, as well as Wales, Fiji and Namibia, and following this result against the 1991 and 1999 World Cup winners will certainly harbour fewer of the doubts about qualifying for the quarter finals than might have been hanging around their shoulders following their disappointing recent IRB's Pacific Nations Cup showing.
After losing to Tonga 29-19 in their final outing of that tournament, national coach Fuimaono Titimaea Tafua insisted that he would be using the remainder of his side's fixtures between now and the World Cup as a selection process to decide who will make the final squad of thirty. Those who bet on rugby will be keeping a close eye on things.
Samoa will take on Wales on September 18th and if the Welsh are hoping to take anything from that encounter, they will need to prove that they can cope with the Samoans' high-intensity ball carrying skills and clinical finishing.
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