Rugby: Samoans shock Aussies with test win

The Samoans came to Australia aiming to gain some respect out of a tussle with the Wallabies and build confidence ahead of the World Cup.

They walked out of Sydney's Olympic Stadium with a stunning 32-23 victory on Sunday that rated as their biggest upset win in international rugby to give themselves a massive boost and cause grave concerns for Australia coach Robbie Deans only two months out from the World Cup.

"Today for us was about respect," Samoa assistant coach Brian McLean said. "We wanted to get some respect. Hopefully we've done that."

The Samoans face defending champion South Africa, Wales, Fiji and Namibia in Group D at the World Cup, and they're already talking about a rematch with two-time champion Australia after that.

"That's our aim. The way things are set up, if we finish second in our pool and Australia wins their pool, then we would meet them in Wellington in a quarterfinal," McLean said, adding that they'd kept a few tricks in store.

Samoa finished last in the Pacific Nations Cup that finished last week, but didn't field its strongest squad in the four-nation tournament and started Sunday's match with a completely new XV drawn from clubs in Europe, Japan and New Zealand.

"For us it wasn't really about who was in the Wallaby team. It was more about us trying to play a game we could play effectively," McLean said. "We didn't go in there to upset the Wallabies, we went in there to play our game, the way we play."

The Samoans certainly did that. They were stronger and more aggressive at the breakdown and in defence than an Australian starting lineup that contained four players making their run-on test debuts and was missing most of the Super 15-winning Queensland Reds.

"We had quite a good tour of the Northern Hemisphere last year but this was the first game where we've had all our players back who played in that tour," McLean said. "We got some respect there. While we didn't win any games, we played some tier-one nations and didn't lose by a lot of points."

The big win over No. 2-ranked Australia took them to a new level.

"This is something special, a win like this creates history for Samoa," skipper Mahroni Schwalger said.

Pacific Island teams are renowned for their physical approach to the game, but often can't maintain that intensity for a full 80 minutes against the top-tier nations.

There was no problem with that on Sunday as Samoa lead from the third minute and jumped out to a 17-0 buffer within a half-hour.

"It's amazing what Adrenalin can do," said centre Seilala Mapusua, who marshalled the midfield defence superbly. "We wouldn't have bothered turning up today if we didn't think we could win.

"The guys are willing to die for their jersey. We're very passionate about that. It really carried us through in the last few minutes."

The Samoans performed their war dance, the Siva Tau, before the match and celebrated the victory with another one for their supporters, who sat in big groups among the crowd of 29,808.

"I can only imagine what's going on in the little island a few hours from here," Mapusua said of the celebrations in the country of 180,000 people. "We're always playing for our people every time we pull on that blue jersey.

"Words can't express the support we felt. Just seeing all the people waiting around at the end there, it's huge."

Powerful winger Alesana Tuilagi ran 75m virtually untouched on a counterattack from an Australian turnover to score the first try of the match in the 11th minute. He celebrated it with a swan dive before grounding the ball.

Fullback Paul Williams charged down Nick Phipps attempting a clearing kick in the 29th and dived on the loose ball in-goal, sending the Samoan fans into a frenzy.

Tuilagi also snuffed out an Australian attacking opportunity with a bone-jarring tackle on Mark Gerrard in the first half, and it was his deep kick down the left touchline that resulted in Samoa's third try.

"The main focus this week was to believe in ourselves," said Tuilagi, who plays in England for the Leicester Tigers. "We came out here just to win this game.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game but we believed in ourselves and, thanks God, we did it today."

Samoa's previous biggest upset win was over Wales en route to the quarterfinals of the 1991 World Cup. They've had three wins over Wales in all but had never beaten any of the Tri-Nations teams comprising New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.

Australia had won all four previous encounters, with the 9-3 win at Pontypool in the 1991 World Cup being the closest. The Australians won 74-7 in Sydney in 2005, which was the last test between the teams before Sunday.

Head coach Tuimaono Tafua rated the win as the best ever for Samoa.

"I think yes, it's history to us. Beating No 2 - I thought it's the No 1 in the world - but yes, it's history to us."