Manu Samoa have secured a 28-14 win against the Barbarians at Brive’s Stade Amedee in their first of two warm-up matches ahead of the Rugby World Cup.
Samoa were first to score via Fritz Lee who was a late replacement for Alamanda Motuga originally named in the 23.
After Theo McFarland took a perfect lineout, a maul was set. The Barbarians looked like they had done enough to stop the driving maul before Lee ripped through the middle to score.
The first half wasn’t pretty by the Samoans. A few handling errors and some scrum issues meant the men in blue found it hard to build any momentum.
The Manu managed to muster an 11-0 lead after the first 40.
The halftime pep talk switched something for Manu Samoa, hitting the pitch for the second half fired up.
McFarland would slice through the Babaas’ defence and was taken down 10 meters out from scoring. A quick recycle of the ball put Tumua Manu in for Samoa’s second try.
One of the most consisten wings in the recent PRC, Tumua Manu was moved into second five for this match.
A heads up intercept by Ereatara Enari gave Samoa their third try. Leali’ifano would add a penalty kick to push Samoa’s lead to 28-0.
Fatigue started to set in for the Manu evident by the last 20 minutes which remained scoreless.
Meanwhile Pat Lam’s Barbarians that featured Tim Nanai-Williams and Jack Lam, managed to score two tries of their own in that time.
The Barbarians scored their first points of the match just minutes after former Samoan International Joseph Tekori took to the field.
Samoa would take a 28-14 win, however, a lot to think about for Vaovasamanaia Seilala Mapusua Samoa and his coaching staff.
Ben Lam being the main concern as he left the match early with a possible knee injury.
