Rugby: England too strong for Samoa
With the stunning performance of centre, Shontayne Hape, England secured their second consecutive win of this autumn season, when they thrashed Samoa.
It was England’s third match of this autumn season, which was played at Twickenham stadium and finished with the score of 26-13, in England’s favor. England lost against All Blacks and won against Wallabies, in their previous two matches. England will face world champion Springboks, in their final match of this season, this on coming Saturday. Samoa, who was beaten by Ireland last week, couldn’t perform well in there, second match as well. Now Samoa will face Scotland, in their final match of this season.2 tries from Matt Banahan and Tom Croft and 16 points from star player, Toby Flood, helped England to score 26 points in the match. Samoa’s 13 points came with the help of 2 tries from Paul Williams and Fautua Otto.
The match started strongly in Samoa’s favor, when Paul Williams scored 3 points for his country on a penalty, which Samoa got in the third minute. Williams got one more chance to extend Samoa’s lead but his kick, went wide. England, got a try in the 11th minute, to score but video referee disallowed the try and score remained in Samoa’s favor 0-3.But steadily England started to show their class and scored 3 points in 16th minutes of play, on a penalty from Toby Flood and level the score, 3-3.After England got their first penalty, they started to put strong pressure on Samoa and played a very attacking game. This pressure from England, helped them to get another penalty in 27th minute and Toby Flood’s kick increased England’s ,score up to 6 and England took the lead with the score of 6-3.The first-half ended, with England leading the score,6-3.
The second-half also started in Samoa’s favor, when Samoa’s replacement player Iosefa Tekori, helped his team to get a try. Paul Williams didn’t miss the try and helped Samoa, to take the lead, 8-6.But this lead from Samoa didn’t last long and England took the lead after two minutes, when Matt Banahan took the score up to 11-8 on a try. 2 more points from Toby Flood, took England’s lead up to 13-8.England succeeded to take 2 more penalties in the next few minutes, which took England’s lead to 19-8 and the play, entered in the final 10 minutes. England took 7 more points in the final 10 minutes, which took them on their final score of 26, in the match. First, England’s replacement player Tom Croft took 5 points on a try and then Toby Flood took 2 more points for England. Samoa was still on 8 points, at that moment.
Last minute try, from Fautua Otto, helped Samoa to trim down the shortfall and Samoa took 5 points. These 5 points took Samoa’s score to 13.However England won the match, 26-13.
Final Score England 26 (6) Samoa 13 (3)
Scorers
England
Tries: Banahan, Croft
Conversions: Flood 2
Samoa
Tries: Williams, Otto
Penalties: Flood 4
Penalties: Williams
Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (IRL)
Teams
(15-1)
England: Ben Foden, Chris Ashton, Matt Banahan, Shontayne Hape, Mark Cueto,Toby Flood, Ben Youngs, Nick Easter (capt), Hendre Fourie, James Haskell, Tom Palmer, Courtney Lawes, David Wilson, Dylan Hartley, and Andrew Sheridan
Replacements: Steve Thompson, Dan Cole, Dave Attwood, Tom Croft, Danny Care, Charlie Hodgson and Delon Armitage.
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