Samoa 41 Canada 22

Manu Samoa beat Canada 41-22 in the Epson Cup Pacific Rim tournament as the Pacific Islanders ran in four tries to Canada's one.

Samoa looked in real trouble early on as Canada executed rucks and mauls with composure and commitment, finally freeing Sean Fauth on the wing to score wide, followed by a good conversion from Scott Stewart.  Good support featured in Canada's play with strong hits from the Samoans shrugged off.

Samoa, however, found Canada vulnerable to the kick and chase.

Their first try was founded on fullback Winston Stanley running a high ball and when swamped Samoa got a penalty.  Captain Semo Sititi scored from mauling the resulting lineout.

Three minutes later Canada tried to run another high ball, and as his teammates were sucked into a ruck, Brian Lima ran in from the wing for a pass, straightened and went over.

Canada ran another high ball, then a kick under pressure found Sititi instead of touch, and support from Toa Samania and Lima on the inside put Craig Glendinning clear for a try.

Samoa displayed, mainly through halfback Joe Filemu, the intelligent kicking John Boe had been looking for since taking over as Samoa coach this year.

"And that to me was the best part of the whole game because we now have another weapon on attack," Boe said.

"I mean we scored some good tries, but at the end of the day it was the kick and chase in the first half that set up the victory," he said.

"The forwards didn't get back but neither did the backs," said Canada's captain, Al Charron.  "Or if we did have the backs back, the guy who had the ball didn't recognise the (right) option -- he tried to jink too much.

"And that was what we were doing and that was putting us in a lot of trouble," said Charron.  The second half was stop-start as lost possession and injuries took over.

Bright moments came from Fanolua cutting through to score after a tight-head and an Opeta Palepoi mid-field bust that Saveaalii finished off under the posts.  Canada also scored from botch-ups by Samoa at lineouts as concentration faded late in the game.

The Teams:

Samoa:  1 Polo Asi, 2 Tani Fuga, 3 Kas Lealamanu'a, 4 Tom Curtis, 5 Opeta Palepoi, 6 Craig Glendinning, 7 Semo Sititi (c), 8 Isaac Fea'unati, 9 Joe Filemu, 10 Tanner Vili, 11 Brian Lima, 12 Terry Fanolua, 13 To'o Vaega, 14 Elvis Seveali'i, 15 Toa Samania
Reserves:  Tim Cowley, Lome Faatau, Malaga Leota, Onehunga Matauiau Esau, Ngapaku Ngapaku, Lama Tone, Denning Tyrell

Canada:  1 John Thiel, 2 Pat Dunkley, 3 Kevin Tkachuk, 4 Alan Charron (c), 5 John Tait, 6 Gregor Dixon, 7 John Hutchinson, 8 Phil Murphy, 9 Morgan Williams, 10 Scott Stewart, 11 Sean Fauth, 12 Kyle Nichols, 13 Nik Witkowski, 14 Mark Irvine, 15 Winston Stanley
Reserves:  Ed Knaggs, Harry Toews, Adam Van Staveren

Referee:  Tagivetaua s.

Points Scorers:

Samoa
Tries:  Fanolua T.L. 2, Glendinning C.R. 1, Lima B.P. 1, Seveali'i E. 1, Sititi S. 2
Conv:  Ngapaku N. 1, Vili T.A. 2

Canada
Tries:  Fauth S. 1, Hutchinson J.R. 1, Tait J.N. 1
Conv:  Stewart D.S. 2
Pen K.:  Stewart D.S. 1