Samoa's quarter-final incentive as England crash

RUGBY: PARIS, Sept 15. - Samoa have the incentive of a match with faltering England for a place in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup if they can maintain their dominance over Pacific island rivals Tonga here on Sunday.

England crashed to a record 36-0 defeat to South Africa in Paris on Friday to leave them precariously placed for the last eight and the prospect of having to back up against the bone-crunching Samoans in Nantes next Saturday.

But Samoa must first stretch their winning sequence against Tonga to 10 in their Pool A contest at Stade de la Mosson if they are to up the ante against the crisis-hit Cup holders.

Samoa went down 59-7 to South Africa in their opening game and must beat Tonga, who are buoyed by their 25-15 victory over United States here last Wednesday and are themselves in with a great chance of pushing their quarter-final claims.

Yet the reality is that Tonga last downed Samoa 16-13 in Nuku'alofa in June 2000 some nine internationals ago and the 10th-ranked Samoans are expected to repeat the dose here on Sunday.

"We know Tonga very well, we play them a lot. They know us very well. And you know we've just got to play a very smart game plan, and we've got the personnel to play and execute that game plan," Samoa coach Michael Jones said Saturday.

"And we'll have to do it well, because the Tongans will be up for it, they've got a point to prove and they can go home successful if they beat us. That's what it comes down to."

The Samoans, quarter-finalists in 1991 and '95, have won eight of 17 matches at the World Cup, winning at least twice in each of their four previous tournament appearances, including doubles over Wales and Argentina, while Tonga have won a modest three times.

The All Black legend has made five changes to Samoa's backs with only two players - fullback Gavin Williams and winger Alesana Tuilagui - keeping their places from the side that lost to South Africa. In comes scrum-half Steve So'oialo and fly-half Loki Crichton with Sailosi Tagicakibau starting on the wing.

Tongan skipper Nili Latu has not trained since the win over the United States with a hamstring injury and coach Quddus Fielea is to make a fitness decision before the match. Tonga have made three changes with hooker Ephraim Taukafa replacing Aleki Lutui, 2003 World Cup captain and lock Inoke Afeaki coming in for Lisiate Fa'aoso and Enele Taufa ousting Soane Havea at scrum-half.

"We've picked players that we think can expose the weaknesses in the Samoa team," Tongan assistant coach Ellis Meachen said. "We had some good patches in our first game, our lineout was good, but our combination was slow. Our handling let us down at rucks and mauls, so we've been focusing on those areas."

French-based Afeaki said Tonga now had better backs and was confident of overturning Samoa. "It's going to be who has a more complete game. They have a more complete game than us but we have a lot of backs in our team now that are Sevens specialists that gives us a bit of width in our game," Afeaki said Saturday.

"In the past we have relied on our forwards and our backs haven't been too great and that forces us to go back to the forwards. "Whereas now we have a lot of confidence when we give the ball out to the backs."

(AFP)