ROUND FOUR WRAP: Samoa showed their class against Zimbabwe to run in seven tries and claim their second win of the tournament in the first-ever meeting between the sides.
In front of a lively crowd at the DIY Kitchens Stadium in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, it was the Samoans who largely dominated proceedings during a formidable display of skill and strength in a 43-7 win.
Yet the Sables’ spirits never sagged, and they scored a late consolation try through Dale Lemon, leaving Zimbabwe captain Hilton Mudariki to say: “Credit to Samoa because they showed their class today [Saturday]. It shows we’ve got a lot to work on, but our fans were amazing so we’ll just keep building.”
Samoa, who named a powerful side with former All Blacks Josh Ioane and Shaun Stevenson making debuts along with AJ Lam and Chris Gabriel, established a commanding 19-0 half-time lead, and winger Latrell Ah Kiong scored twice, and Peter Umaga-Jensen also touched down.
Samoa led in the seventh minute with an exquisite finish from Ah Kiong, who showed outstanding strength and dexterity to touch down acrobatically in the right corner.
It was just reward for their vibrant start, and a second try arrived when Ah Kiong doubled his tally with another spectacular finish in the right corner.
Zimbabwe were undone again when Lalomilo Lalomilo intercepted an errant pass and unselfishly offloaded to centre partner Umaga-Jensen to score.
Hooker Richie Asiata was sinbinned, but Samoa were 19-0 ahead at the break, and they cut loose in the second half.
Ben Nee-Nee, Ah Kiong with his hat-trick score, Miracle Faiilagi and debutant Lam all scored for Samoa, with Lemon touching down for Zimbabwe, much to the delight of their supporters.
Meanwhile, in the weekend’s other matches, Spain produced a performance full of grit and determination to narrowly beat Uruguay 18-12 in the Spanish capital and claim their second win of the tournament.
Portugal served up a superb display to clinch their third win from four games after running out comfortable 36-15 victors over Chile at Estadio do Restelo in Lisbon.
Georgia made home advantage pay by racking up a fourth straight Nations Cup win after comfortably dispatching old adversaries Canada with a 59-14 bonus-point victory in Tbilisi.
Kaleb Geiger’s dramatic late try handed USA a 28-26 victory and maintained their 100 percent winning start to the Nations Cup at Stade Marcel-Verchère in Bourg-en-Bresse, France.
On Friday, Tonga edged out hosts Romania 43-38 at Stadionul National Arcul de Triumf in Bucharest in the highest-scoring match between the two rivals.