Rugby videos of tackles, tries, funny incidents and more: Samoa beat Fiji to win the Pacific Nations Cup 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Samoa beat Fiji to win the Pacific Nations Cup 2010

Samoa surprised Fiji this past weekend in Apia as they snatched the Pacific Nations Cup from under their noses by beating the favourites 31-9 in the Samoan capital. The win adds to their impressive IRB Sevens World Series win earlier in the year.

Fiji were expected to win the final game after coming out tops in their previous two, but the Samoans scored five tries to take their first ever Pacific Nations Cup title after they came away with a better points difference, despite also having two wins and a loss.

"This win was for the people of Samoa. We came into the game with no pressure but just to give our best shot and prove our worth to the people of Samoa," said captain Mahonri Schwalger.

"I am pretty lost for words, but we came out here to win the game and gave it all we had for the people in our country," added Schwalger.

"It is amazing what attitude can do. At the end of the day you want to win the game and we threw everything we had at Fiji and now we have the cup so I am proud of my boys.

The Samoan side had its fair share of Sevens stars on show, with one of their biggest, Mikaele Pesamino, showing those skills as he scored a great solo effort. Joe Tekori also crossed in the first half, while fellow Sevens players Uale Mai and Alefoti Faosiliva also scored, with the latter scoring twice.

It’s the first time that the PNC has been won by a Pacific Island nation, after it was dominated by New Zealand sides since its 2006 inception.

The following is only short highlights, but includes Pesamino’s great try. Big congrats to Samoa.

Time: 01:00

Dragons - wish the Pacific Island teams could get more funding, more time together and not lose all there players to New Zealand and increasingly Australia.

Love the style of rugby they play.

By Wolfman21, at June 30, 2010 5:21 pm
Good to see Mikaele Pesamino making good in 15s after scoring 123 tries for his country in 7s. I see he plays NPC rugby for Auckland, anyone know if he will have a Blues contract next year?

By Disco, at June 30, 2010 5:30 pm
nice tries and you've gotta love the shirts they are wearing !!!! ;D

By Luxi, at June 30, 2010 5:49 pm
one or won?

By jackohos, at June 30, 2010 6:22 pm
wish NZ and the aussies wernt stealing all the decent pacific players maybe make a new rule saying not allowed to play for grandparents country possibly?
but then i couldnt play for holland.....

By Anonymous, at June 30, 2010 6:41 pm
*Won :)

By GMC, at June 30, 2010 7:37 pm
@ Disco:

some clubs in france and the uk are approaching him atm. i will be nice to see him playing for Blues :)

By Anonymous, at June 30, 2010 7:42 pm
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

By Anonymous, at June 30, 2010 8:00 pm
Pesamino is going to Toulon at the end of the year. Ts the saime club that had SBW last year

By Anonymous, at June 30, 2010 8:13 pm
Any chance of full highlights for that match? Love to see them playing

By clev, at June 30, 2010 8:21 pm
Such an awesome style of rugby! It's like they're playing it on the beach just for laughs, but with massive collisions thrown in! Great to see Samoa back on top, any guesses for which "big gun teams" they're going to shock come RWC time?

By Bokke_2007, at June 30, 2010 10:17 pm
@Bokke_2007 Samoa will play the Boks Wales Fiji 2011 IRB in NZ tuff pool for them,,,,

By Anonymous, at June 30, 2010 10:42 pm
Pesamino is a real talent. I saw a lot of 7s rugby this year and he and the rest of Samoa really impressed me. Its been a great year for Samoan rugby overall, won the 7s championship and the Pacific Nations. Good to see

By Rowan DeBues, at June 30, 2010 11:14 pm
More like Samoa stealing New Zealanders huh. Many of this team are kiwis and at the last Rugby World Cup 20 of the 30 players in the Samoan suqad were New Zealand born or bred. Who is poaching who? I wish some rugby supporters could move on from this nonsense!

By Tepee, at June 30, 2010 11:56 pm
Mikaele Pesamino yes that's the same Pesamino that grew up in Australia and learnt his rugby there. That's right, he,s any Aussie.

By Tepee, at July 01, 2010 12:00 am
A huge number of the Pacific Islander teams are actually New Zealanders with Samoan, Tongan or Fijian heritage, so in reality they steal a massive number of their players from NZ (and occaisonally Australia).
Also, just because a guy is of Islander heritage does not mean he must be from the Islands.
EG Wycliff Palu was born in Sydney, so why would he play for Tonga, cuz his parents are from there?
That's like saying Ugo Monye has been poached from whatever African country his family is from, even though he was born in London. Like, just because he's black, he can't be English.
Just because a guy's an islander he couldn't possibly have been born or raised in Aus or NZ is basically what people are saying when they say NZ and Aus steal Islander players, even though there are hundreds of thousands of people of Islander heritage living in these two countries.
Auckland has the biggest population of Samoans of any city in the world ffs.

By Jono, at July 01, 2010 12:52 am
That's right Mikaele Pesamino is Aussie, he has a strong Aussie accent and lives in sydney.

By Hannover, at July 01, 2010 2:25 am
lmao pesamino is from vailele(Samoa) born and raised there u idiots! hahaha he played one season in NPC and 2 season for aussie fusebol lol dumb wankers!

By Anonymous, at July 01, 2010 3:00 am
#1 POACHER! = NZ

By Anonymous, at July 01, 2010 3:04 am
New Zealand Is home to more polynesians than any other place in the entire WORLD. These players are polynesian KIWIS. I am a polynesian kiwi. Nobody in my fam has lived in samoa for THREE GENERATIONS. All of you saying people like me don't have the right to play for the ABs are racist, no two ways about it. Its like saying saffas should all have to play for holland...

By Mafi, at July 01, 2010 3:53 am
Yes, he was born in Samoa, but moved to Sydney when he was about 8 years old.
He used to represent Samoa in Australian Rules football ffs!
He grew up in Sydney since before he was a teenager, played Aussie Rules football and rugby, played in the Sydney club rugby comp, has a strong Aussie accent and still lives in Sydney with his family.
He also moved to NZ breifly to play for Auckland in rugby, before moving back to sydney, where he still lives, as he would, since he's an Australian resident.

By Hannover, at July 01, 2010 8:46 am
That's Mikaela Pesamino I'm talking about by the way, Samoan sevens top try scorer.

By Hannover, at July 01, 2010 8:46 am
Pesamino was born and raised in Samoa, and lives in Samoa too. I have no idea where you're getting your bogus info from. If he was raised in Australia, his English would be a lot better huh? haha

By Anonymous, at July 01, 2010 9:07 am
For a guy who supposedly speaks with an Aussie accent, he's pretty in touch with his roots http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzYCvTrNT0w

By Flinto, at July 01, 2010 9:16 am
Nice tries!

By Free HD TV, at July 02, 2010 8:24 pm
I stand corrected.
Serves me right for trusting something I read on the internet.

By hannover, at July 06, 2010 8:12 am
You were saying Tepee? ....
Born in Australia? .. .

Jog on mate stop claiming

By Bealy, at July 09, 2010 1:29 pm
Get ur facts straight! Pesamino is not going to Aukland Blues or Toulon, he is joining SALE SHARKS! Wooooo what a signing! Saaaaaaaleee!

By Anonymous, at July 26, 2010 12:02 am