Samoa upbeat over date with Springboks

BRIGHTON – Manu Samoa has made the perfect start to their Rugby World Cup campaign with a hard fought 25-16 win when they overpowered the United States of America at the Brighton Community Stadium.

Tries from Tim Nanai-Williams and captain Ofisa Treviranus helped Samoa get their tournament to a fabulous start.

Samoa joins Japan, who upset South Africa, at the top of Pool B with four points and have set the stage for a now much-anticipated clash between Samoa and the Springboks this Saturday.

“It was a good game against the USA and it was a very tough game but we are very happy with the win,” captain Ofisa Treviranus said.

“Our preparations were good coming into this game. I thought our discipline was good. The most important thing for us was to win and we’ve done that so we’re very happy.”

Coach Stephen Betham echoed the thoughts of his captain.

Conceding that it was a tough game, he said they expected USA to throw everything at them.

“We’ve still got a lot to work on but we’ll take the win and build from here,” he said.

And with South Africa up next, Betham knows they will have to lift another notch, especially after the Springboks lost their opening game to Japan.

“We expect the backlash from the Boks but we will be ready for it,” he said.