Samoa stun Australia 32-23

Samoa claimed their greatest ever victory with a stunning 32-23 upset of Australia at the Sydney Olympic stadium on Sunday on a humiliating afternoon for the two-time World Cup winners.

Rugby’s second-ranked team were outplayed by the big-hearted Samoans just a week away from the Wallabies’ Tri-Nations opener with South Africa and only months before the World Cup in New Zealand.

The Samoans swarmed all over the hosts, outscoring them four tries to two for their first win over Australia in five meetings.

Tenth-ranked Samoa ambushed the Australians with a 17-0 lead inside the opening half-hour and although the Wallabies pulled back to trail 17-13 minutes after half-time, that was as close as they got.

Samoa got off to a flyer when Leicester Tigers winger Alesana Tuilaga raced 70 metres to score off a turnover.

The powerful Tuilaga beat off Matt Giteau’s tackle to score in the 11th minute and crowned his runaway try with an extravagant swan dive in-goal.

Tusi Pisi added the conversion to his earlier penalty goal to give the Pacific Islanders a 10-0 lead. Australia were shell-shocked.

The Wallabies passed up a possible 12 points by electing to run the ball from four penalties in the opening 20 minutes, but Giteau was forced to take a 45m penalty attempt, which he missed.

The Samoans continued to pressure the home side and were rewarded when debutant scrumhalf Nick Phipps had his clearing kick charged down for fullback Paul Williams to score in the 29th minute.

Pisi’s conversion gave Samoa a stunning 17-0 lead.

South African referee Marius Jonker lost patience with Samoa and lock Daniel Leo was yellow carded for hands in the ruck.

AFP