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Samoa ‘A’ have been crowned champions of the 2018 Americas Pacific Challenge. The Pacific Islanders earned a handsome 38-26 victory over hosts Uruguay ‘A’ in Montevideo on Sunday. It was an exciting match to end the tournament with nine tries split between the two sides.
Uruguay got bad news early in the day as star scrumhalf Santiago Arata was forced to withdraw before kickoff. His spark was missed but the forwards rolled up their sleeves and controlled play early. Germán Kessler drove over from close range just minutes into the match, Federico Favaro converting to make it a seven-pointer.
A reply came via Ionatana Tino, the scrumhalf showing his strength from the base of a ruck. D’Angelo Leuila converted and then sent over a penalty to give the Samoans a lead that wouldn’t quite hold to halftime. Kessler again crossed from a driving maul to make it 12-10 to the home side at the interval.
The first points of the second half would go to Samoa despite being down a man after Johnny Samuelu was binned for a dangerous tip-tackle. It was flying winger Johnny Vaili who got the touchdown, the first to the ball after Tino had hacked ahead twice and then Bradford Lemalufaitoaga put his boot to the ball.
Uruguay looked back in the game when their scrum earned a penalty try near the hour mark but Samoa responded immediately and then some. Samuelu made up for the yellow card by scoring after a lovely inside offload from Alefosio Tapili.
Replacement halfback Danny Tusitala was next to the line, finishing off a team attack, and then Jacob Mapu pounced on a loose ball that popped out the back of a Uruguayan put-in at the scrum. The flanker fended off Rodrigo Silva and dragged Favaro over the line with him to seal the win for Samoa. A consolation score went to Manuel Ardao on full-time.
Samoa are the first team other than Argentina to win the APC, the latter finishing in second place after their dominant win over the USA Selects earlier in the day. Uruguay end in third overall and will now prepare to send several players to the Major League Rugby combine in Glendale in a week’s time before undertaking a four-match tour of Europe.
SCORING
URUGUAY 26
Tries – G. Kessler 2 (5’, 38’), Penalty try (58’), M. Ardao (80’)
Cons – F. Favaro 2/3 (6’, 80’)
Pens – F. Favaro 0/1
SAMOA 38
Tries – I. Tino (25’), J. Vaili (50’), J. Samuelu (60’), D. Tusitala (68’), J. Mapu (75’)
Cons – D. Leuila 5/5 (26’, 51’, 61’, 69’, 76)
Pens – D. Leuila 1/1 (31’)
Drop goals – P. Fa’apale 0/1
Yellow cards – J. Samuelu (45’)
TEAMS
URUGUAY ‘A’
1 Mateo Sanguinetti, 2 Germán Kessler, 3 Juan Echeverría, 4 Ignacio Dotti, 5 Diego Magno, 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara (capt.), 7 Leandro Segredo, 8 Alejandro Nieto, 9 Joaquín Alonso, 10 Rodrigo Silva, 11 Federico Favaro, 12 Andrés Vilaseca, 13 Joaquín Prada, 14 Leandro Leivas, 15 Gastón Mieres
Replacements: 16 Manuel Ardao, 17 Guillermo Pujadas, 18 Matías Benítez, 19 Diego Ayala, 20 Manuel Diana, 21 Ignacio García, 22 Manuel Blengio, 23 Tomás Inciarte
SAMOA ‘A’
1 Setu Enoka, 2 Afa Aiono (capt.), 3 Brook To’omalatai, 4 Mikaele Tapili, 5 Ikifusi Matamu, 6 Bruce Kaino, 7 Jacob Mapu, 8 Potu Leavasa Jr., 9 Ionatana Tino, 10 Patrick Fa’apale, 11 Johnny Vaili, 12 D’Angelo Leuila, 13 Alefosio Tapili, 14 Johnny Samuelu, 15 Bradford Lemalufaitoaga
Replacements: 16 Leo Brown, 17 Rodney Tapu, 18 Tuaniu Tuaniu, 19 Elia Togitele, 20 Fagu Malloy, 21 Danny Tusitala, 22 Harry Luteru, 23 Paulo Scanlan
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Pali Deluca (UAR)
