Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Peter FitzSimons reflects on Australia's shock defeat to Samoa.
"Six years ago, in the same game, the Wallabies won 74-7 and were expected to double the dose this time. For how could a side from a nation of only 180,000 people, with only 7000 senior players to pick from, who've lost five of their last six Tests, possibly compete against a two-time world champion team of Australians, in Australia, la creme de la creme of 40,000 players?
An easy victory beckoned. Instead, of course, our blokes were reduced to a bloodied and muddied bunch of Goliaths as a courageous and wonderful bunch of Davids in blue jerseys cut them down to size, ran them ragged and then danced on their rugby graves.
And it was no fluke. From the moment the enormous Samoan winger Alesana Tuilagi scored the opening try, the Wallabies were reeling as blue wave after blue wave kept crashing on them and three more tries followed. The Wallabies' two tries in reply were well constructed but in terms of bridging the gap were no more effective than throwing a couple of rocks into the Grand Canyon. As the Wallaby captain Rocky Elsom said after the match: "They played better than us, and won."
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