What's happening
England - Samoa

October 26 Match

WHAT'S HAPPENING? (posted 26th October 2003)
Wowee! If you missed the England Samoa game this evening you really dipped out! Within two minutes, England were penalised for being offside in the tackle and Earl Va'a posted a three pointer for Samoa. Shortly afterwards, the Samoans put together ten phases of play with nice passes drawing in the defence and solid play structure that saw the ball sent wide and Seme Sititi, the captain, go over for a Samoan try! When Va'a converted the try, we were seven minutes into the match and the score was 10-0 :) Who'd have thought? Wish I'd had a bet on! Anyway, the Poms were looking rattled, and the Samoans were looking like a slick well oiled machine! Even Jonny Wilkinson was feeling the Pacific Islanders heat. He blew his 100% kicking performance record for the tournament so far when he missed a pretty easy penalty kick. Uh oh! Va'a was given another penalty kick opportunity twenty minutes into the game when Martin Johnson - England's captain was pinched for being offside by ref Jonathan Kaplan. Dang it but the kick hit the posts! I must say - Jonathan Kaplan copped a bit of flack (yes from me as well) for being whistle happy in his last game, but he had a great game this time round. Must have just been having an off day last time :)

England finally got themselves on the scoreboard when Neil Back scored. Back's try came as a result from a rolling maul that the English team formed from a lineout throw in. They'd been awarded a penalty when Samoa was penalised for playing the ball from the ground. The score was 7-10. Samoa was penalised again shortly after, and Jonny Wilkinson levelled the scores 10 a piece with his kick.

The two kickers then had a bit of a kick off for the remainder of the first half. Va'a kicked two penalties, and Jonny Wilkinson had two penalty opportunities, but was only successful on one of those. The half time score read 13-16 in favour of Samoa!

I'd have liked to have been a fly on the wall of the English dressing room at half time.. heh.. and I resisted the temptation to start sending smart arse text messages to pommy mates during the break - thank God! Yep I've been caught before. Nothing worse than having to eat crow! You know, the funny thing is I don't really have any issues with the English team, it's just the pompous assed English supporters that give me the jeebies. Okay, they're not all pompous assed - just the annoying ones :))

Round two and the Poms came out fighting with Jonny W (too long to type Wilkinson all the time) having a crack at a field goal. He missed again - faints! But with only 4 minutes gone in the second half, Terry Fanolua the Samoan centre went off with injury - and he'd been having an awesome game. The Poms started to put together a few phases of play, and in the fiftieth minute after 9 phases of play, they had a lineout feed in near their try line. Kaplan awarded England a penalty try when Samoa collapsed the scrum. I don't know though - from my lounge room it looked like the English might have had something to do with that! Should I watch with both eyes open do you think or just keep going with the one eyed approach? heh. The English were in front 18-16 and Johnny W converted the try to put the poms 4 points clear of Samoa.

With tons of time still left on the clock all was not lost for Samoa, and when Neil Back was penalised, Va'a slotted a three pointer to bring the margin back to just one lousy point - 20-19 in favour of England. Va'a potted a penalty goal and Samoa was back in front - briefly. Johnny W replied with a field goal for his team to put them back in the lead by a point.

With twenty minutes to go the time in possession revealed just how evenly the two teams were matched - 50% each. Woodward, sensing that his team were struggling had brought on a couple of his big guns though - Balshaw and Vickery. Step up that degree of difficulty factor Woodward :) Balshaw scored a try to put England 6 points out in front. I must admit, it was a very good try. Jonny W kicked the ball foward and Balshaw collected it and crossed the tryline virtually unchallenged. Phil Vickery whacked on another try for England and the full time score was 35-22.

What an awesome game of rugby! The Samoans showed unbelievable determination, guts, skill, and heart. Evidently the Poms thought so too because they formed a guard of honour and congratulated the Samoans on their play as they left the field. England were very lucky to get away with the win - and the final score doesn't really reflect just how very very close this game was. Samoa take on South Africa to determine who will get the second quarter final berth from Pool B next Saturday at Suncorp stadium in Brisbane. I can't wait! England will face Uruguay next weekend.