Manu Samoa 7s Falls Short Against Argentina Beats South Africa To Make 5th Place Final.
Photo: HSBC LA SEVENS
Manu Samoa Sevens have booked a place on another 5th Place semifinal after losing in a very entertaining match against the Argentinian Los Pumas side 19 - 12.
The boys in blue were menacing during the pool fixture of the Los Angeles 7s tournament over the weekend, winning all of their three pool matches against host nation U.S.A 26 - 19, Chile 31 - 5, and rivals New Zealand by 14 - 7.
Manu Samoa next faced the very formidable Argentinian Sevens outfit who won two out of their three pool games.
Los Pumas drew first blood through their gas man Marcos Moneta who managed to grubber the ball behind a Samoan defender before regathering it to score underneath the goalposts to go into the lead 7 - 0.
However Manu Samoa quickly answered back with a try when Motu Opetai won a kickoff restart ball and passed it to speedster Tuna Tuitama to score Samoa's first try of the match and put the scores at 7-a-piece.
Manu Samoa had a lot of chances to score again but conceded too many penalties in the last few remaining seconds of the first half which led to Los Pumas scoring their second try from Luciano Gonzales to go into halftime leading Samoa 14 - 7.
In the second half Samoa pounced back through Faafoi Falanilo who kicked the ball behind the Argentinian defence and picked it up to score and put the match at 14 - 12.
Los Pumas however soon replied with a try from Rodrigo Isgro to put the scoreboard at 19 - 14.
Samoa won against South Africa 45-5 to make it to the 5th Place Final.