Samoa 43 Italy 24

With a scoreline very similar to the Mandela Challenge clash, Samoa beat the touring Italy side 43-24 in Apia.

Running in five tries to three, Samoa's victory was spearheaded by excellent performances by fullback Toa Samania and veteran wing Brian Lima.

Italy started off slowly, and were no match for the pass from To'o Vaega that saw Samania cross the tryline in only the sixth minute.  In fact, the Italians failed to get on to the scoreboard until the 32nd minute, and by then, the Samoans had raced to 17 points.

Italy's first points came from a try under the posts to Carlo Cecchinato (lock).

Samoa were rampant in the frist 10 minutes of the second half, adding 11 points and forcing Italy to make some substitions.  The change of personnel helped and the Azzuri scored two tries in five minutes.

But by then it was too late.

The Teams:

Samoa:  1 Polo Asi, 2 Tani Fuga, 3 Kas Lealamanu'a, 4 Tom Curtis, 5 Lama Tone, 6 Tim Cowley, 7 Craig Glendinning, 8 Isaac Fea'unati, 9 Joe Filemu, 10 Tanner Vili, 11 Brian Lima, 12 Terry Fanolua, 13 To'o Vaega (c), 14 Afato So'oalo, 15 Toa Samania
Reserves:  Iva Motusagu

Italy:  1 Andrea Lo Cicero, 2 Alessandro Moscardi, 3 Tino Paoletti, 4 Carlo Checchinato, 5 Andrea Gritti, 6 Andrea De Rossi, 7 Aaron Persico, 8 Carlo Caione, 9 Juan Manuel Queirolo, 10 Ramiro Pez, 11 Luca Martin, 12 Manuel Dallan, 13 Cristian Stoica (c), 14 Nicola Mazzucato, 15 Corrado Pilat
Reserves:  David Dal Maso, Luca Mastrodomenico, Giampiero De Carli, Juan Francescio, Giacomo Preo, Lisandro Villagra

Attendance:  7500
Referee:  Henning t.

Points Scorers:

Samoa
Tries:  Lima B.P. 1, Samania T. 1, So'oalo A. 1, Vaega T.M. 1, Vili T.A. 1
Conv:  Samania T. 3
Pen K.:  Samania T. 4

Italy
Tries:  Checchinato C. 1, Gritti A. 1, Stoica A.C. 1
Conv:  Pez R. 3
Drop G.:  Pez R. 1