Samoa U18 unlucky

By Ulimasao Fata 23 April 2018, 12:00AM

The Samoa U-18 Sevens team has had to settle for second place at the Oceania Sevens Championships in Sydney, Australia.

The Stephen Betham-coached team lost in the final, 7-32, to Australia at Riverview on Sunday. The win for Australia secured them their ticket to the Youth Olympics.

It was a disappointing finish to what started so well for the Samoan team who were on fire during the day one of the tournament.

The defending Youth Commonwealth Games champions continued their highly refined and executed form backing up from last year’s 2017 Youth Commonwealth Games performance, securing four wins on day one including a 17-12 win over the host nation Australia, over the weekend.    

Samoa defeated Solomon Islands on their first match 41-0, also Fiji 19-12, and Tonga 24-17 at fulltime.

The team then played Cook Islands on day two and continued their undefeated run winning 42-7.

The Samoa side suffered two injury concerns to their players, heading into day two of the competition, says a report from the Samoa Rugby Union (S.R.U.).

“Tuna Tuitama and Pose Tuilaepa both sustained hamstring injuries on day one but have yet to be ruled out of day two.”

Samoa played against hosts, Australia, hoping to repeat their pool matches undefeated wins, unfortunately Australia was determined to capitalise on their mistakes and defeated Samoa 32-7.

Australia boys and New Zealand girls will represent the Oceania region for the upcoming 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games in Argentina in October. 

By Ulimasao Fata 23 April 2018, 12:00AM
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