There were, as Radiohead once sang, no alarms and no surprises as Samoa condemned a developing Namibian team to a second successive defeat.
First Half
Following on from their impressive if disjointed display against Fiji, Namibia would have been disappointed with the familiar sight in the fourth minute of a Pacific Islander crashing over the whitewash in the right hand corner. Even more disappointingly, it was not a powerhouse winger but instead diminutive scrum half Kahn Fotuali'i who brushed off a number of weak side-on tackles to cross. Fly-half Tusi Pisi converted well from the touchline, and added a further three points with a penalty soon after.
Slick hands in the backs five minutes later created a chance for Leicester's Alesana Tuilagi to cross on the left, and the giant winger finished the chance off with characteristic efficiency. Namibia's forwards were being destroyed in the loose, and after Tuilagi had already seen one charge halted, after the Samoans stole the lineout their backs, orchestrated by the impressive Pisi and his brother George had all the time in the world to orchestrate the scoring chance. Again the number ten converted, and again followed it up with a penalty from long range after Namibia infringed under pressure at the scrum.
The remainder of the half proved less positive for the side from the South Sea. Although Tuilagi crossed for his second try, Namibia's full back Chrysander Botha was given the opportunity to further showcase the dancing feet he had displayed against Fiji, and more seriously they lost the impressive stand-off Pisi to injury after he had made a winding run for the line, followed just a minute later by flanker Taiasina Tu'ifua at the subsequent lineout. Tuilagi bounced off further weak defending to charge over on the left, but that will be of small consolation to the Samoans losing two players who have proved key in recent weeks. It may not be possible to compound the misery of a team 25-0 and three tries to the good at half time, however the sin-binning of full back Paul Williams for a dangerous high tackle would have come close. Still, Samoa should have counted themselves lucky the card wasn't red.
Second Half
As befitting a game between 14 men and 14 men who can't tackle plus Jacques Burger, the second half opened in a fashion that swung between cagey and sloppy, with Tuilagi having a hat-trick try ruled out for a forward pass. Samoa had, as expected, the better of it but there was a distinct lack of accuracy to their game, and the only score of the first 14 minutes was a penalty from Williams.
The "deadlock “ and I use the term in the loosest sense “ was broken minutes later. Good hands from Census Johnston and pace from replacement scrum half Polu saw a sudden break out of defence, and after a brief exchange of kicks it was a nice break and offload at pace from Gloucester centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu that sent Tuilagi away down the left to complete his hat-trick in style, and this time unabated by the referee's whistle. Williams added the conversion, and followed this with a score under the posts as he danced past some ostensible defence to score from close range after the athletic Pacific Islanders had again broken from deep.
At 0-42 you could forgive Namibian heads for dropping, but to their credit they managed to rile the aggressive Samoans, and were rewarded for their perniciousness with a skilful score from Danie van Wyk scored from distance. Wing Llewellyn Winkler caught his own chip ahead on the full and offloaded impressively to van Wyk, who had impressed against Fiji and followed this up by racing in for five points.
Still, this Samoan side are not, as shown by their pre-tournament victory over Australia, ones for romance and sentimentality. With ten minutes to go they took a series of scrums against a flagging Namibian pack, and were ultimately rewarded by referee Romain Poite raising his arm under the posts and awarding a penalty try.
There was still time for one more score, and it whilst it was irrelevant to the score it will have pleased the neutral that it was the southern African fly-half Theuns Kotze who sold the dummy and slipped over from close range in the dying minutes. Kotze added the conversion to round off the scoring for the day, leaving the result at 12-49.
Thoughts
The result was never in doubt, as Samoa would always be too strong for Namibia. Whilst the Africans didn't embarrass themselves, they were allowed fewer opportunities than they were against Fiji by the more disciplined Samoa. Like Fiji, Samoa's scrum was disappointing and there is a large scope for improvement before they face Wales and South Africa, however they showed that in the backs especially they have the skill levels to match any side here bar Australia. The major questions are over their discipline, focus and fitness: they have to work on maintaining all three over eighty minutes, and they will wait anxiously on the fitness of injured fly half Pisi, who impressed in his short time on the pitch.
.jpg "Owen Farrell broke Jonny Wilkinson's points record and also had a penalty timed-out as England scraped past Samoa")
.jpg "England are keen to build on their opening three wins at the World Cup against Samoa")
