SAMOA BLOWN AWAY BY FRESH ENGLISH AIR
(Image taken from England Rugby)
Well the last time England faced Samoa in rugby was in the 2003 World Cup. And on that occassion the Pacific islanders were a pain in the backside for the future world champions. Fast forward to 2005 and England were in a opsition where they'd so far split a pair of games at Twickenham. A home win over Samoa was supposed to be money in the bank so coach Andy Robinson threw in some new faces, including Louis Deacon, Harry Ellis and Jon Voyce.
It was Samoa that kicked off but England that were running the show pretty much from the start and Hodgson soon opened the scoring with a penalty though Samoa and their kicker Tanner Vili soon replied in kind. Hodgeson put England back in the lead with another kick before Lewis Moody shut down a Samoan counter for a string of passes to find Voyce who sped away for a debut try, coverted by Hodgeson who added another penalty for England to go in at half time 16-3 up.
The heat on Samoa continued in the second half, resulting in a second Voyce try, the new guy picking the ball up after a scrum, Hodgeson converting having set up the try with a pass that caught the visitors completely on the hop. The islanders then had to be reminded that high tackles do no one any good whatsoever, they risk sending oppisition players to hospital and get you(meaning in this case Vili and Justin Va'a) sinbinned. In the meantime Hodgson added a try of his own after he picked up the ball on the far side of the pitch and Ellis joined the party after leaving everyone standing. Done and dusted you'd have thought. Not quite. First Samoan Alesana Tuilagi puts in another high tackle and then Moody(Tuilagi's teammate at club level) starts battering him. Ref sent both players off. Another England new guy, sub Tom Varndell had the last word though, bursting through space for a final try.
Overall, it's been a solid series from England, who come out of it with a 2-1 record and less nerves about Charlie Hodgson as kicker with Jonny Wilkinson still injured. However the All Blacks are definately one side that'll need to be dealt with in the 2007 World Cup in France and of more immediate concern is the 2006 Six Nations. On that front England can definately be considered back in business, having had some brilliant play and the best record of the Home Nations this autumn at least. I'd certainly like to see what Tom Voyce could do against Wales.
In the meantime, New Zealand were in Murrayfield, looking to complete the Grand Slam over the British teams, though Chris Patterson's opening penalty suggested that Scotland had other ideas. The All Black response was lethal though, Rico Gear and kicker Nick Evans both adding tries(Evans converting his) before Evans added a penalty and converted another try from Sione Luaki before being replaced by Leon McDonald who converted a final try from Gear, finishing the Scots(and the British Isles as a whole) off despite a late Scottish try from Simon Webster, converted by Patterson. 29-10 the final score.
Wales had the relatively easy task of dealing with the hit and miss Aussies in Cardiff in what turned out to be a tight match. Stephen Jones opened the scoring for Wales with an early penalty only for the Aussies to reply with a Lote Tigiri try converted by Mat Rogers. Jones could only pull things back to 7-6 before halftime with a penalty. Australia opened the second half with a Nathan Sharpe try converted by Rogers...only to concede a penalty try converted by Jones and sweep into the lead with a Shane Williams try converted by Jones who went on to beat Rogers 2-1 in a kicking contest. Austrailia had the last word with a Chris Latham try but with Rogers unable to convert, the score Wales 24 Australia 22 doesn't make for good reading down under.
It does make for good reading in Wales though, still, we've got a few months to wait till we find out to what extent their 2005 Grand Slam was a one off or not.
Roll on the Six Nations.
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