22 Aug 2011

Sport: Samoa win final hitout before Rugby World Cup naming

9:59 am on 22 August 2011

A makeshift Manu Samoa were too strong for the Western Force, winning 35-24 in Apia in their final hit out before the unveiling of their Rugby World Cup squad.

In their first match since upsetting Australia in Sydney, the Chairman's 15 struggled and trailed 24-16 before coach Fuimaono Tafua cleared his bench during the second half.

That opened the floodgates with tries to Ole Avei, Jeremy Sua and Alesana Tuilagi sealing the win.

Fuimaono says it was a good opportunity to have one final look at his squad before naming his world cup squad.

"All of our players they played well today and some of the players that we still want to have a look at them - especially some of our halfbacks, our new halfbacks, which is three of them. So we gave them all a chance to play so they played well. They proved it to us, you know, and played very well."

Fuimaono will name his 30-man world cup squad on Monday afternoon.

Tonga name their World Cup team on Tuesday.