Manu Samoa held on to the pressure and turned the tables on Chile before the end of the first half, laying the foundation for a 43-10 victory over Chile in their opening pool match at the Rugby World Cup in Bordeaux early Sunday morning.
They scored five tries and claimed two extra bonus points in the win, setting them in good position in a pool which England and Japan were victorious in last weekend.
Duncan Paia’aua (41′), Jonathan Taumateine (42′), Fritz Lee (47′) and Sama Malolo (52′, 81′) were the Pacific Islanders try-scorers.
Former Wallaby flyhalf Christian Lealiifano scored 16 points and had the chance to play alongside former All Black opponent Lima Sopoaga colours in the Manu Samoa colours, the two partnering in the second half to drive the Samoans home.
Coach Seilala Mapusua said it was good to start off with the win.
“Really happy to get the win. We had waited to play our first game for a while,” he said at the post-match conference.
“To be able to do that and walk away with the maximum points is a great start to our campaign.
“I thought Chile were amazing today and we knew they were gonna be our first game. We knew that we needed to grind out a win.
‘It was not the prettiest one but that’s absolutely fine by me.”
