Samoa pushed Australia to the wire before losing 34-22 in their opening match at the World Rugby Under 20 Championship in Italy.
The Baby Manu conceded the opening two tries of the match but Trent Winterstein crossed in stoppage time to cut the deficit to seven points at half-time.
The Samoa Under 20s perform the Siva Tau. Photo: Massimiliano Pratelli/Fotosportit.
Samoa dotted down twice in the second half, via captain Josh Dowsing and Jarred Adams, to get within five points with eight minutes remaining but the Junior Wallabies scored two minutes later to seal victory.
Australia challenges the Samoa defence at the World Rugby U20 Championship. Photo: Massimiliano Pratelli/Fotosportit.
Dowsing says for a moment they thought the game was theirs for the taking.
"I was just really proud of the boys, how we stuck with it, and we said at the start of the game that we weren't going to give up and I think we showed that and we didn't give up until the end. Full credit to the Aussies in the end - they were just a little bit too good for us. At one stage it was 20-15 or 22-15, or something like that, and I thought we were right back in it and a couple of poor decisions on our behalf didn't help us, and then they just seemed to [go from] strength to strength and we couldn't reel them back in but I thought we were very close and maybe if it was a different day and a different setting things would be different".
Samoa's next match is against South Africa on Sunday morning.
