Rugby World Cup 2011: Recaps of Day 4 matches
The fourth official day of the Rugby World Cup 2011, conducted three more clashes among the various sides. However, all these encounters were of lesser importance as no major side was involved. In fact it was a day reserved for rather associated nations.
Samoa faced Namibia in the very first match of the day at Rotorua International Stadium. Owing to the neutral venue, fewer supporters came to cheer the teams. Most of the seats remained vacant throughout the match as only 12,752 spectators attended the clash.
Kahn Fotuali'i put his side straightaway in the lead as he scored the opening try in the first minute of the match. Samoa, after getting a perfect start, dominated the Namibians right through the match and provided them no chance to bounce back into the
game. Alesana Tuilagi delivered a Man of the Match performance while scoring a hat-trick of tries.
He crossed the Namibian white wash line with the pill in the 16th minute and registered the hat-trick in the short span of 38 minutes. Samoan full-back Paul Williams had performed a wonderful job of scoring 14 individual points in the battle.
Samoa led the match 25-0 at the break and completed their victory with an impressive total of 49-12 in the end. One player from the each side was yellow carded in this clash.
In the other match of the day, Canada thumped Tonga by 25-20 after a close contest in Whangarei. Canada made a good impression right from the start and conducted repeated attacks on the Tongan goal lines. Jebb Sinclair got early success for his team as he
discovered the loop holes in the 12th minute to score the first try of the match.
Aaron Carpenter and Phil MacKenzie also contributed one try each for Canada, however, James Pritchard was the man who added most points for his side. He guided the pill twice with a penalty and twice on conversion goals.
Tonga on the other hand produced a much better performance in the second half and gave a real tough time to the opposition. However, the lack of team support to Kurt Morath and Siale Piutau sunk them in their first outing of the global showpiece by a narrow
margin of 25-20.
The third and last match of the day was played between Georgia and Scotland in Invercargill. The match earned four valuable points for Scotland as they overwhelmed the Georgian side. Georgia cut a sorry figure in the both halves but had done well to stop
the rampant Scottish team to move freely in the arena. The match ended without any try by both sides. Dan Parks played a one man show for Scotland.
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