15 Mar 2011

Samoa beat Chiefs to take control of Pacific Rugby Cup

11:43 am on 15 March 2011

Samoa A leave for Fiji today content that they've played themselves into a very strong position in the race for the Pacific Rugby Cup.

After picking up two wins in Australia, Fepuleai Patu's side became the only Pacific Island team to win a game in New Zealand yesterday in beating the Chiefs development team 18-17.

That puts them five points clear at the top of the PRC standings and while no tries were scored, Patu says the result has put them in a commanding position for the final round of matches.

"We really want to win - especially this last game - just one win in Fiji will seal the championship. It was really important the win yesterday."

In yesterday's other fixtures Tonga A lost 36-18 to the Crusader Knights while Fiji Warriors went down 27-13 to the Hurricanes development side in Porirua.

The Fijians finished strongly in the final 40 minutes, after trailing 19-3 at half-time, but coach Samu Domoni says they left it too late.

We were our own worst enemy because everything we said that we would not do we did and basically it went against us. You can't do that against New Zealand teams, you know. You make mistakes like that - they punish you and they crucify you. Basically they turned pressure into points and capitalised on it. We're just our worst enemy.

Fiji, Tonga and Samoa now move to Suva where they play each other over the next fortnight.