Samoa were devoured 74-14 by the Golden Lions ON Saturday as they warmed up for a quadrangular rugby series in South Africa.
After trailing 27-14 at half-time, the Pacific islanders conceded seven second-half tries before a sun-drenched 15,000 crowd at Ellis Park.
Woeful defending allowed the Lions to score too many soft tries.
Samoa full-back Paul Williams, a son of former New Zealand great Bryan Williams, refused to use the 1,800-metre Johannesburg altitude as an excuse.
“It is part of rugby and we have to adapt. This result is incredibly disappointing for us,” the skipper confessed.
“Nothing turned out the way we had planned and there is a lot of work to be done before facing Scotland next weekend.
“We were missing a few experienced players, who will arrive early next week, but the side is used to this situation and should have performed much better.”
Samoa began brightly with left wing Alesana Tuilagi scoring the first try of the afternoon on 10 minutes and fly-half Ki Anufe converted.
But the islanders allowed substitute flank Derick Minnie to barge over for three tries before half-time and fly-half Marnitz Boshoff converted them all.
The giant Samoans — tighthead prop James Johnston weighs 138 kilograms — ran out of steam during the second half and the final whistle was a relief.
Samoa face Scotland on June 8 at Kings Park in Durban and Italy on June 15 at new Test venue Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
Depending on those results, Samoa will face Scotland, Italy or South Africa for first or third place on June 22 at Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria.
Scotland, Samoa and South Africa were drawn in the same group for the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England and Wales.
Tuilagi and No.8 Ofisa Treviranus were the Samoan try scorers with Anufe slotting both conversions, but failing with a first-half penalty kick.
Minnie (3), left wing Anthony Volmink, full-back Chrysander Botha, fly-half Lionel Cronje, centre Stokkies Hanekom (2), scrum-half Ross Cronje and right wing Deon van Rensburg scored tries for the Lions.
Boshoff, who started the game at No.10, slotted three conversions and two penalties and Lionel Cronje succeeded with six of seven conversion attempts.
Dumped from Super Rugby after finishing bottom of the table last season, the Lions are preparing for a two-leg South African relegation-promotion play-off.
Article source: http://www.planet-rugby.co.za/lions/story/0,25883,3551_8753539,00.html
Golden Lions thump Samoa 74-14 in rugby
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