Vaiala vs AYI Fiji
Vaiala started the match perfectly by turning stellar defence into 7 points.
Fiji attacked phase after phase offloading left, right and center but could not penetrate the Vaiala defence lead by former Manu Samoa 7’s Leicester Sefo. Sefo turned the ball over and let the Vaiala backline loose as Malu Falaniko with his footwork scored under the post.
Vaiala had all the momentum in the game yet AYI Fiji stayed cool, calm and collected as they ran in two quick tries to lead at halftime 14-7.
An injury to Murphy Paulo stopped the match for a moment and that meant the second half started off very slow.
A Fijian error gave the dangerous Vaiala backline a chance to score and they did just that. Johnny Samuelu, former Manu Samoa 7’s rep ran 50m to score leaving 2 Fijian defenders in his rear view mirror. Now down by 2 points with the conversion to come, Patrick Faapale, as cool as you like, slotted the conversion from the sideline to send the match to Overtime.
An extra 5 minutes was added to the clock for overtime. Time expired and it looked like more time was needed to seperate the two teams until the Vaiala backline lit up Marist Park with a scintillating 60m try that sent Vaiala into the Grand Final and forced a loud roar from the crowd.
Apia vs Tepatasi
Apia Maroons, who have been slow starters all tournament finally got off on the right foot. With a scrum under the post, Samu Iosua, who is currently in the Manuma squad, put two Tepatasi defenders in reverse as he ran through them to score.
Now leading 7-0 the experience of Apia started to show when Tila Mealoi, long time Manu Samoa 7’s player danced his way to the try line to extend his teams lead to 12 at halftime.
Tepatasi looked to make a comeback in the second half but 4 Manuma squad members in Apia’s team proved too strong for the valiant Tepatasi as Maroon won 24-0.
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