Samoa v Fiji (2023)

[Stargazer]

Sat 29 July 2023
Kick-off 2.00pm NZT
Apia
Live on TV1

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[Stargazer]

See commentary team:

https://twitter.com/TVNZ/status/1684147480211099648

[Stargazer]

https://www.fijirugby.com/five-debutantes-named-for-the-match-against-manu-samoa/

[Duluth]

An old loose forward trio for Samoa 32, 34 & 35. Lautua is the youngster on debut

[African Monkey]

@Duluth Looks like both teams still trying out new combos before the RWC. Samoa have a lot of depth in the loose forwards but I'd say that Seu or Luatua will have to play lock as it was a real weakness last week.

Still yet to see Sopoaga as well. Could potentially see him and Leali'ifano playing together at 10/12.

Will also be interesting to see if Ala'alatoa slots back in ahead of Alo Emile as the latter destroyed the Japanese scrum last week. Faumuina will have the reserve tight head spot, so it's either Alo Emile or Ala'alatoa gunning for the starting spot.

[Duluth]

Strong first scrum from Fiji

[Duluth]

12-0 Fiji after 12mins

Fiji playing narrow and direct. Samoa struggling so far

[Nepia]

They seem to have slightly better cameras for this weeks game, it doesn't feel like I'm watching in SD.

Samoa are looking terrible. Edit: And as I type that they score a try.

[Duluth]

A couple of good offloads and Fiji goes 95m

27-5 after 33mins

[Duluth]

Samoa had a better second half

Similar game to last week for Fiji. Got out to a big lead early and then went a bit flat

[African Monkey]

Not a good first half from Samoa. Looked well off the pace. All the changes they made seemed to disrupt things, which having said that, should give them a fair idea moving forward on who their best side is.

Radradra was a handful at 12.