Manu Samoa slaughtered

Sport

By Atama Raganivatu

A HORRENDOUS 73-3 loss to the Wallabies under floodlights at the Syd ney Football Stadium badly marred an otherwise successful tour of Australia by Manu Samoa. Western Samoa was

totally outgunned by the rampant world

champions, for who Viliame Ofahengaue the Tongan Torpedo made an impressive return to the international arena, after missing the whole of last season through a knee injury.

Ofahengaue provided the inspiration for

a dominant home pack and their ram pant backs went on a points scoring spree. The result was an Australian record, beating the 67-9 annihilation of U.S.A. in 1990.

And yet, the Samoans went into the

game with seemingly justifiable hopes of

victory. They had improved consider-

ably since holding an Australian team on the way to World Cup triumph 9-3 in Wales three years ago and impressed everybody while winning all their four previous tour games.

But, Western Samoa never got into the game in Sydney at all and perhaps had been drained by what was greeted as a milestone conquest of Queensland six

days earlier.

As well as the 24-22 win over the Super Ten champions, Western Samoa recorded successes against Victoria

(60-26), Australian Capital Territory

(39-13) and President’s XV (21-18). A good team does not become a bad team overnight and, hopefully, the Samoans

will focus upon their excellent perform ances when coming from behind to beat

Queensland, despite being reduced to 14

men, -and the eclipse of what is widely regarded as the best A.C.T. combination to ever be fielded, rather than the nightmare experienced under the stars at Sydney (although this is rather like asking Mrs. Lincoln to remember the

play’s plot!).

Nearly every major national rugby

s id e has experienced a defeat of similar magnitude at some stage in their history and bounced back. The character of Manu Samoa will now be severely tested, but such is the quality of the young talent now coming up through the ranks that the S F S failure is likely to be soon dismissed as a mere aberration rather than a major setback. □