Toa Samoa have kicked off their World Cup 9’s tournament with a 32-17 win over Fiji.
Samoa drew first blood when Penrith Panthers five-eight Jarome Luai dazzled the Fijian defence with his fancy footwork.
Samoa had a 4-0 lead until Danny Levi’s quick dart from dummy half put Moses Leota into a gaping whole to score a bonus try which pushed Samoa’s lead to 11-0.
As expected Fiji weren’t just going to turn over and let Samoa run a muck. With a trademark offload by Kevin Naiqama, Fiji were flying down the field until Melbourne Storm Marion Seve came across on cover defense to make a near-try-saving tackle. But Samoa were slow to get back and Fiji were over in the corner through Taane Milne.
With the Penrith Panthers duo Jarome Luai and Moses Leota already on the score sheet, fellow Panther Brian To’o decided he wanted to get in on the fun Too, pun intended 🙂
To’o ran fiercely, breaking through 3 would-be Fijian defenders to score his first try in the blue colours, taking Samoa to halftime with a 17-4 lead.
To’o wasn’t satisfied with one try. He dove into the right hand corner for his double, less than a minute into the second half.
Danny Levi and Moses Leota were at it again with an exact replica replay of their previous combination to put Leota under the post for his second try. Samoa then led 28-4
Toa Samoa put the cherry on top of an excellent performance when debutant Dean Blore put David Nofoaluma over the tryline with a scintillating skip pass.
Samoa leads Pool C with this win over Fiji and the men in blue play Cook Islands at 3:45pm tomorrow Saturday 18th October 2019 (Samoa time).
