Samoa scare the Dragon

58,907 people were on the edge of their Millennium Stadium seats, as Samoa were oh-so close to notching another famous win over the Wales. The Welsh kicked off in their unfamiliar yellow shirts, however they were soon in familiar scenes as another loss to the gallant South Sea Islanders was on the cards. In the end the whistle saved the day and they snuck home 17-13.

It is not that Samoa has not dealt Wales a fair share of losses in the past(1991 & 1999 RWC’s), but more that Wales played so well a week ago against the All Blacks, their team was strong and Mr Gatland was expecting a top drawer performance to create momentum.

The Samoans returned to test rugby mere weeks after a devastating Tsunami ravaged their homeland, what they did was send a message home that they are proud, they are strong and they never give up, as usual!

The welsh started powerfully, as they did last week against the All Blacks, slotting penalties on offer and scoring a try after 5 minutes with a superb cross kick. At this stage they must have thought Samoa was ripe for the picking.

On the 16 minute Wales got another 3 and sailed out to 11-3 and looked pretty, in the 34th minute Samoa pegged a penalty of there own and it stayed at 11-6 as they run into the tunnel for halftime.

As they say it is so important to score 1st in the second half and it only took Wales 2 minutes to notch another penalty. In the 52nd minute it was cut and paste as they stretched out to 17-6 with another 3 pointer.

The Samoan’s were under pressure at scrumtime & this sent the home crowd into their beautiful singing. With this blissful sound Wales got on the front foot and started to play expansive footy. Samoa though replied with some tackling to subdue the choir in the stadium, and put the yellow jerseys in reverse with crunching ascendancy. This business end of the test saw both teams at their best, and the rugby from both sides of the world was matched by each other.

In the 60th minute the jaw of every Welsh- man and woman & child present dropped big time. They were on attack near the 22 and drove well centre-field, sensing a chance they flung it right to launch, but waiting was Seilala Mapusua and boy did he take his chance. The intercept was from his own 22 and he bolted to score under the posts. The conversion was good and two minutes later they draw a penalty and landed it, tension time as it is 17-13 with less than twenty in the test.

In the last 5 Samoa hammered away to go for the comeback win. Mapusua was so close to sealing a surprise victory with a grubber for Uale Mai to chase, but the ball beat the playmaker in to touch.  Samoa got a penalty, but Gavin Williams hooked his kick wide and missed the chance to bring Samoa to within a sole point.

Samoa was not done and frantic defence was required from the Welsh as big Henry Tuilagi drove for the line. Wales dug deep and somehow got out of jail and sealed the victory.

They will take the win, but they will also be rocked back to reality of what test match rugby is really about. Samoa came today with a mountain of courage. These 2 teams are in the same pool in the 2011 RWC, playing in New Zealand will ensure a bumper crowd and almost home ground status for Samoa with the Island population in NZ. When these teams rumble in the RWC, the cheers from the stands will all be behind Samoa and this will make for an interesting prospect to see how the Dragon of Wales handles the heat then.