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A young Emirates Western Force squad acquitted themselves well in an entertaining and attacking 35 – 24 result that fell the way of Samoa in the opening match of the of the West Australian’s two game tour on the South Pacific Island.
In hot and humid conditions in Apia, tries to Nick Cummins and trial winger Sam Wara, as well as the radar boot of flyhalf Willie Ripia, helped the Emirates Western Force to a two point half time advantage.
The visitors extended that to eight with penalties to Ripia and James Stannard just after the restart before the Samoan Chairman’s XV, which featured all World Cup bound players, hit back with three tries in the final 20 minutes.
With Samoa using games against the Emirates Western Force as final preparations ahead of their World Cup mission the home side was cheered on by a sold out vocal home crowd.
Emirates Western Force Coach Richard Graham said he was happy with the first up effort particularly given his squad featured seven trial players and had arrived in Samoa just three days earlier.
“I thought the boys played some really good rugby given our limited preparation and time together,” Graham said.
“I was pleased with the endeavour and the way we went about the game against a Rugby World Cup squad. I thought we held our own against a quality opposition.
“The Samoan side didn’t let up were able to rotate experienced international players into their side throughout the 80 minutes, in the end that was probably the difference on the scoreboard.”
Not helping the Emirates Western Force cause was an injury to Captain Sam Wykes which saw him subbed out after 20 minutes. The big lock will be assessed in the coming days before a decision is made on his involvement in next weekend’s match.
The Perth side will spend the week in Apia preparing for another meeting with Samoa on Saturday (Sunday, Perth time).
“It was the tough, hard, strong hit-out that we expected and wanted,” Graham said.
“It gave us a great opportunity to see our young contracted players step up without our Wallabies contingent and also expose the guys that we’re looking to possibly add to our squad next season in an intense game situation.”
Samoa Tour: Game 1
Samoa Chairman XV v Emirates Western Force
Samoa kick-off: Saturday, 20 August 2011, Apia Park, 3.00pm
Perth kick-off: Sunday, 21 August 2011, Apia Park, 10.00am
* please note Samoa is 19hrs behind Perth (AWST)
Samoan Chairman XV: 35
Emirates Western Force: 24 (Nick Cummins 1t, Sam Wara 1t, Willie Ripia 3p/1c, James Stannard 1p)
7min Emirates Western Force - Willie Ripia penalty 0 – 3
12min Emirates Western Force - Sam Wara try 0 – 8
18min Samoa – penalty 3 – 8
19min Samoa – try 8 – 8
30min Emirates Western Force –Nick Cummins try 8 – 13
31min Emirates Western Force –Willie Ripia conversion 8 – 15
36min Samoa – penalty 11 – 15
38min Samoa – try 16 – 15
40min Emirates Western Force –Willie Ripia penalty 16 – 18
Half time
55min Emirates Western Force – Willie Ripia penalty 16 – 21
57min Emirates Western Force – James Stannard penalty 16 – 24
60min Samoa – try & conversion 23 – 24
69min Samoa – try & conversion 30 – 24
75min Samoa – try 35 – 24
Full time
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