Sawt Falasteen - Mapusua's Samoa 'stay in the fight' to beat 'spirited' Chile

The Pacific Islanders scored four second-half tries to claim a bonus point having trailed after half an hour.

"How we came out at half-time was really pleasing for me," Mapusua told reporters.

"The attitude and focus of the players were exactly where they needed to be. The guys stayed in the fight after a spirited Chile performance.

"It was a shift in momentum," he added.

Chile captain Martin Sigren agreed with Mapusua's opinion regarding the interval.

"We could see a clear difference between the first and second half," flanker Sigren said after his country's second ever World Cup game.

"They started to destroy what we had built and we started to have doubts.

"We made too many mistakes which cost us the game," he added.

Former Australia fly-half Christian Leali'ifano kicked 16 points for Samoa, four years on from featuring at the last edition of the World Cup for the Wallabies.

The 35-year-old, as well as ex-All Blacks Lima Sopoaga and Steven Luatua, benefit from a rule change allowing a player to feature for a second country after a stand-down period.

"Those players who have joined Manu Samoa through the eligibility amendment has strengthened our team," ex-Samoa centre Mapusua said.

"I now have a wider pool of players to select from. They only add to the quality of the group.

"It's a really nice mix and they're expanding the breadth of our leadership as well," he added.

Next up for Samoa is Saturday's game with Argentina, who lost to England last weekend.

"I know that we are not where we need to be to beat Argentina," Mapusua said.

"We have to do a lot of work between now and next week to compete with a wounded Los Pumas.

"We know they will come out firing," he added.

A.Suleiman--SF-PST