Samoa got their Rugby World Cup campaign off to a winning start as they beat Russia 34-9 with a try bonus-point at Kumagaya Rugby Stadium.
Alapati Leiua (2), Afaesetiti Amosa, Ed Fidow (2) and Rey Lee-Lo crossed for the islanders, with Tusi Pisi adding two conversions off the tee.
For Russia this is their second pool defeat after they lost the tournament opener to Japan on Friday. Yury Kushnarev kicked their nine points.
Next up for Samoa is the task of facing Scotland, Japan and then Ireland as they look to spring a shock and progress to the knockout stages.
It was a first half low on scores but full of incident as Samoa were lucky to receive two yellow cards, with both surely needing to have been red.
First Lee-Lo was sin-binned after making a high hit on Russia full-back Vasily Artemyev, which clearly made contact with his head. However, TMO Graham Hughes advised referee Romain Poite to consider the slight dip before impact from Artemyev, which saved the Samoa centre.
While that was contentious, just two minutes later on the half-hour Samoa hooker Motu Matu’u was also sin-binned after flying in and making head on head contact with the Russia full-back. The former was clearly knocked out from the impact and would also get a spell in the bin.
Before those incidents there was some scoring action as Leiua crossed expertly on the right wing for an unconverted crossing on 16 minutes.
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But Russia worked themselves back into the game well and two penalties from Kushnarev nudged them in front at 6-5, which was how it stayed until the break as both sides enjoyed a breather. Russia though must have been upset with the refereeing calls and being just one point up.
Their lead would be ended just five minutes into the second half when Samoa number eight Amosa crossed, despite being tackled high by Russian prop Kirill Gotovtsev. He was the third player in the game to be shown a yellow card, this before Pisi was wayward with the extra two.
Following a well-struck Kushnarev drop-goal, Samoa sparked back into life as a lovely inside ball saw Fidow scorch over from 20 metres out, with Pisi making it 17-9 with the simple conversion on 50 minutes before Fidow was over again, this time on the left wing to make it 24-9.
Samoa were now cruising and Lee-Lo was next to cross for their fifth try of the game on 62 minutes and it was fitting that man-of-the-match Leiua would add the gloss late on as he raced over for his brace.
The scorers:
For Russia:
Pens: Kushnarev 2
Drop goal: Kushnarev
Yellow Card: Gotovtsev
For Samoa:
Tries: Leiua 2, Amosa, Fidow 2, Lee-Lo
Cons: Pisi 2
Yellow Cards: Lee-Lo, Matu’u
Russia: 15 Vasily Artemyev (c), 14 German Davydov, 13 Vladimir Ostroushko, 12 Dmitry Gerasimov, 11 Kirill Golosnitskiy, 10 Yury Kushnarev, 9 Vasily Dorofeev, 8 Nikita Vavilin, 7 Tagir Gadzhiev, 6 Vitaly Zhivatov, 5 Bogdan Fedotko, 4 Andrey Ostrikov, 3 Kirill Gotovtsev, 2 Stanislav Selskii, 1 Valery Morozov
Replacements: 16 Evgeny Matveev, 17 Andrei Polivalov, 18 Azamat Bitiev, 19 Andrey Garbuzov, 20 Anton Sychev, 21 Dmitry Perov, 22 Ramil Gaisin, 23 Vladislav Sozonov
Samoa: 15 Tim Nanai-Williams, 14 Alapati Leiua, 13 Rey Lee-Lo, 12 Henry Taefu, 11 Ed Fidow, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Dwayne Polataivao, 8 Afaesetiti Amosa, 7 TJ Ioane, 6 Chris Vui (c), 5 Kane Le’aupepe, 4 Teofilo Paulo, 3 Michael Alaalatoa, 2 Motu Matu’u, 1 Logovii Mulipola
Replacements: 16 Ray Niuia, 17 Paul Alo-Emile, 18 Jordan Lay, 19 Senio Toleafoa, 20 Josh Tyrell, 21 Melani Matavao, 22 AJ Alatimu, 23 Ulupano Seuteni
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant Referees: Jérôme Garcès (France), Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
TMO: Graham Hughes (England)
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