Replacement Abraham Papali’i scored a second-half double as Samoa came back from 25-8 down at half-time to tie their qualifying play-off first-leg against Chile 32-32 at America First Field, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to set-up a winner-takes-all return match in Vina del Mar, Chile, next weekend.
The first-half had been an object lesson in discipline, patience and pragmatism from Chile, as they punished repeated Samoan errors. Repeated pick-and-goes right into the heart of Samoa’s defence brought the first try of the game, as they piled close enough for second row Javier Eissmann to stretch out a long arm to score with four minutes on the clock.
Los Cóndores ran a variation on the theme 12 minutes later. Their forwards hammered their way to Samoa’s line, before the ball was spun wide. A long pass from fly-half Juan Cruz Reyes gave outside centre Matías Garafulic all the time in the world.
A yellow card for Iokopo Mapu appeared to finally wake up Samoa at the end of the opening quarter, Theodore Steffany sniping down the blindside after Logali Visinia’s break.
But Chile responded almost immediately with a highlight-reel team effort. Offload after offload down the 5m channel got them ever-closer until the glory ball got to Santiago Pedrero.
Samoa thought they had narrowed the gap late in the opening 40 when Melani Nanai got a static run of phases moving forward. But his offload to Connor Tupa’i was forward.
They did close the gap early in the second period. A tap penalty with Chile down to 14, after a yellow card for Benjamín Videla, ended with a spectacular dive in the corner for winger Latrell Ah Kiong.
But Garafulic powered over for his second minutes later to restore Chile’s points advantage.
A second disallowed try – this one for offside in the maul – denied Samoa’s Jarred Adams in the 55th minute. But, minutes later, Alamanda Motuga took a pop pass on the gain line from Christian Leali’ifano and powered through under the posts.
Suddenly Samoa looked sharper and more confident. Papali’i, in his second international and on for Olajuwon Noa, burst off the back of a scrum and blasted through tiring defenders as the clock ticked into the closing 10 minutes. And, having been 25-8 down at half-time, they had cut Chile’s lead to five.
With the clock four minutes into the red, and desperate Chile conceding repeated penalties as they defended their line, Papali’i took one final offload from Ah Kiong to level the scores out wide. Christian Leali’ifano could not convert to leave the scores level heading to South America.
Samoa captain Michael Alaalatoa admitted immediately afterwards: “We had to dig deep. Chile put us under a lot of pressure – they played really well when they entered our half.
“But that’s the effort we’ve been looking for, for the last six or seven weeks that we’ve been together. We know we’re capable of playing rugby like that and I’m glad we were able to show that today.
Looking ahead to next week, he added: “We pretty clear on what the scenario is now. It’s nil-all, so we just need a win, so both sides are going to throw everything at it.
Chile’s skipper Clemente Saavedra was determined to stay positive, despite the ending: “It was a really good match,” he told Rugbypass TV. “We had a really good first half. The second half, we have to do an analysis on Monday to see what we can do better, but the group is really good. We’re playing in Vina del Mar, so on balance I’m quite happy.
“The first 20 minutes in the second half has to be much better in Vina del Mar.”
