Wales survive huge scare to seal narrow win

Wales 17 Samoa 13: WALES FLIRTED with another upset defeat at the hands of Samoa before emerging 17-13 winners at the Millennium Stadium last night.

Samoa, who upset the Welsh in the World Cups of 1991 and 1999, were playing them for the first time in nine years and stayed in the game largely due to Wales’ failure to make their dominance pay.

Despite coming together only last week, the islanders finished on top and, but for missing an easy penalty attempt and misplacing a pass with the tryline in sight, they could have been celebrating another shock win over the Welsh.

Wales started strongly with a try from Leigh Halfpenny, who later added a long-range penalty with young outhalf Dan Biggar kicking nine points.

However, Wales blew several good opportunities and an intercept try by centre Seilala Mapusua and eight points from Fa’atonu Fili kept Samoa in it right to the whistle.

“It’s as tough a Test match as they come but I think we should be disappointed with the amount of mistakes,” said Wales captain Ryan Jones.

“I take my hat off to Samoa. They got together on Sunday and they put a fantastic team performance together.”

Wales coach Warren Gatland added: “We put ourselves under a bit of pressure, we played a lot of rugby in their half but the finishing wasn’t good enough and we should have put the game away comfortably.

“We had a couple of young players out there who will have learned a lot from that performance but that’s a learning curve.”

WALES: Hook, Halfpenny, Shanklin, J Roberts, T James, Biggar, Peel, Jenkins, Bennett, P James, A Jones, Charteris, Powell, Warburton, R Jones. Replacements: J Davies for Shanklin (49), Rees for Bennett (63), Mitchell for P James (63), B Davies for Charteris (73), Thomas for Warburton (73).

SAMOA: Lui, Lemi, G Williams, Mapusua, A Tuilagi, Fili, Poluleuligaga, Va'a, Schwalger, Johnston, Levi, Tekori, Stowers, Treviranus, H Tuilagi. Replacements: Fa'afili for A Tuilagi (56), Mai for Fili (68), Taulafo for Va'a (74), Thompson for Tekori (57), Fa'amatuainu for Treviranus (64).

Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon(Ireland).