Upolu win cliff hanger

Written by Filo Taituuga:

Upolu Samoa came away with a nail biting 19-15 win against a very tough Tau’uta Red side last night at Apia Park Stadium.  The match went right to the wire with both team’s producing spectacular high intensity rugby action, that continued right up to the final whistle.

Upolu Samoa number 8 and Captain George Stowers was inspirational both with the ball in hand and in defence, leading his peers the entire 80 minutes.  Loleni Tafunai, Misioka Timoteo and outside backs Jerry Meafou and Saul Laumanuvae were prominent for Upolu.

Both sides strung some good phases from the set pieces but failed to complete their movements through the ball not sticking to hand or wayward inaccurate passing.  Roger Warren opened the scoring for Upolu after the Reds were caught at the offside line. He landed a penalty goal 25m out and 10m from the left touch to the delight of the home crowd.

Reds evened the scores 3 a piece with a Mesui Lemoto penalty goal, after Upolu were caught for a similar offense.
Roger warren extended Upolu’s lead with another penalty kick after the Red forwards were caught creeping at a ruck.

Reds responded immediately capitalising on a lineout 5m out, securing clean two hand ball before their number 8 scooped from the back and drove past some feeble defence to score the opening try of the match.
Mesui missed the conversion but the Reds took a handy two point lead.

Upolu bounced back exploiting the blind side with Uale Mai drawing the Reds defence before unloading to a charging George Stowers to run a straight line and commit the cover.  Quick ball from Uale Mai to his outside backs saw Esera Lauina fly over in the corner to cash in on a five pointer.

Warren added the extras for Upolu to take back the lead.  Reds chimed back into the match with their forwards finding holes in centre field. Several phases later the Reds kicked in behind the Upolu defence.

A good chase by the Reds back and a crucial turnover saw their second five drive over to score their second try. Mesui added the extra two points to give Reds a 2 point cushion.

Late in the second spell Warren slotted a handy penalty goal to snatch back the lead and give Upolu a one point buffer.  Warren increased Upolu’s margin by four with a penalty shot after Reds got pinged for a repeat infringement.

With minutes remaining on the clock, the Reds did the unthinkable, literally marching their way from half way down to the try line through brute hard grind.  They pounded the Upolu line through countless waves of attack, but the Upolu defence held firm till the final hooter.

“I take my hat off to Tau’uta they certainly showed they are really worthy to be called champions. In that last spell they put phase after phase from half way right to our try line,” said Upolu Samoa Coach Fepuleai Selefuti Patu.

“In the first half we fumbled many try scoring opportunities through drop balls and lack of confidence.”
“We came right in the second half and were very lucky to come away with the win.”  "Oh I think Upolu played very well out there. It was a pity for our boys but they played with a lot of heart and worked hard all night,” said a relatively up beat Tau’uta Reds Coach, Fuka Kitekeia’ho.