Samoa steadies ship in Vegas with win over Spain

By Ulimasao Fata 03 March 2018, 12:00AM

Samoa must beat Australia tomorrow to secure a Cup playoff spot.

The win is needed after the Manu Samoa Sevens bounced back against Spain, 29-14, at the Las Vegas Sevens.

It was a much better performance where they got the better of possession and played their natural game.

Samoa leapt to a 19-0 lead thanks to tries from Joe Perez, Jacob Ale and the star of the game, David Afamasaga.

Spain hit back through Carter to reduce the gap, 19-7 at the break.

But Alatasi Tupou put the result beyond doubt early in the second spell, 24-7.

Afamasaga scored his second to complete Samoa’s tally before Spain scored a late consolation to wrap up the game, 29-14.

Earlier, Samoa lost, 26-12, to the host team, U.S.A.

One of the first lessons about rugby is that you need the ball. 

Samoa touched the ball once in the first half where they scored through David Afamasaga. 

The rest of the time, they had to defend and the result showed.

The U.S.A dominated possession and they scored three tries through Tom Iosefo and Barrett who touched down twice for a 19-7 lead.

A brace of high tackles landed Langkilde in the bin.

The second half didn’t get any better as the U.S.A continued their dominance with Samoa missing crucial tackles.

When they did have the ball, they just couldn’t gel and they kept handing possession back to their opponents through simple handling errors.

Ben Pickleman scored the Eagles final try before Tomasi Alosio scored a consolation try for a 26-7 final score.

Towards the end of the match, Langkilde’s second high tackle on Barrett earned him a red card.

By Ulimasao Fata 03 March 2018, 12:00AM
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