{"id":224714,"date":"2025-10-19T08:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T08:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/224714\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T08:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T08:22:09","slug":"new-zealand-mount-remarkable-fightback-to-deny-samoa-history-total-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/224714\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand mount remarkable fightback to deny Samoa history \u2013 Total Rugby League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.totalrl.com\/new-zealand-mount-remarkable-fightback-to-deny-samoa-history\/\" title=\"Permanent Link to New Zealand mount remarkable fightback to deny Samoa history\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img width=\"675\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/79882304_HufangaM-Try-Celebrate-251019_SW_070_20251019154158-675x360.jpg\" class=\"bestwp-post-thumbnail-single wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>NEW ZEALAND 22 SAMOA 20<br \/>TOM SMITH, Go Media Stadium, Auckland, Sunday<\/p>\n<p>MELE HUFANGA sealed a massive second-half comeback to deny Fetu Samoa their first ever win over New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>A youthful Samoa side shot to a 20-0 lead at half-time and looked certain to register a maiden win over the Kiwi Ferns at their fifth attempt, before a drastic change in momentum.<\/p>\n<p>Just a fortnight after scoring the late try that clinched the NRLW Grand Final for Brisbane, Hufanga raced 90 metres with a Pauline Piliae-Rasabale kick in the 63rd minute to complete the fightback.<\/p>\n<p>Dally M Rookie of the Year Shalom Sauaso made an outstanding Test bow, and opened the scoring by leaving a string of NZ defenders in her wake.<\/p>\n<p>Gold Coast Titans team-mates Sarina Masaga and Destiny Mino-Sinapati found the whitewash next, the latter sprinting 95 metres with a Patricia Maliepo kick.<\/p>\n<p>Once Tavarna Papalii combined with Masaga for the Samoans\u2019 fourth, the upset was on.<\/p>\n<p>The Kiwi Ferns had other ideas.<\/p>\n<p>Shanice Parker, Ashleigh Quinlan and Alexis Tauaneai all struck within five minutes to set up a tense finish, with halfback Raecene McGregor having the ball on a string.<\/p>\n<p>Parker bobbled the grounding of what would\u2019ve been an equalising try, but Hufanga stepped up instead, and Maliepo made no mistake with the match-winning conversion.<\/p>\n<p>NEW ZEALAND: 1 Apii Nicholls (New Zealand Warriors), 2 Shanice Parker (Newcastle Knights), 3 Abigail Roache (North Queensland Cowboys), 4 Mele Hufanga (Brisbane Broncos), 5 Tysha Ikenasio (New Zealand Warriors), 6 Patricia Maliepo (New Zealand Warriors), 7 Raecene McGregor (St George Illawarra Dragons), 8 Angelina Teakaraanga-Katoa (Canterbury Bulldogs), 9 Brooke Anderson (Cronulla Sharks), 10 Brianna Clark (Brisbane Broncos), 11 Annessa Biddle (Cronulla Sharks), 12 Shakira Baker (New Zealand Warriors), 13 Georgia Hale (Gold Coast Titans). Subs (all used): 14 Ashleigh Quinlan (Canterbury Bulldogs), 15 Otesa Pule (Sydney Roosters), 16 Alexis Tauaneai (Canterbury Bulldogs), 17 Ivana Lauitiiti (New Zealand Warriors)<\/p>\n<p>Tries: Parker (45), Quinlan (47), Tauaneai (50), Hufanga (63); Goals: Maliepo 3\/4<\/p>\n<p>SAMOA: 1 Jetaya Faifua (Wests Tigers), 2 Jessica Patea (Illawarra Steelers), 3 Sarina Masaga (Gold Coast Titans), 4 Lindsay Tui (Parramatta Eels), 5 Destiny Mino-Sinapati (Gold Coast Titans), 6 Taliah Fuimaono (Gold Coast Titans), 7 Pauline Piliae-Rasabale (Gold Coast Titans), 8 Annetta-Claudia Nu\u2019uausala (Brisbane Broncos), 9 Destiny Brill (Brisbane Broncos), 10 Eliza Lopamua (Sydney Roosters), 11 Ryvrr-Lee Alo (Parramatta Eels), 12 Tavarna Papalii (Sydney Roosters), 13 Sienna Lofipo (Gold Coast Titans). Subs (all used): 14 Pihuka Berryman-Duff (Wests Tigers), 15 Laikha Clarke (Gold Coast Titans), 16 Ella-Jaye Harrison-Leaunoa (Ipswich Jets), 17 Shalom Sauaso (Brisbane Broncos)<\/p>\n<p>Tries: Sauaso (13), Masaga (21), Mino-Sinapati (27), Papalii (32); Goals: Piliae-Rasabale 2\/4<\/p>\n<p>SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 0-10, 0-14, 0-20; 4-20, 10-20, 16-20, 22-20<\/p>\n<p>Rugby Leaguer &amp; League Express Women of the Match<br \/>New Zealand: Male Hufanga; Samoa: Shalom Sauaso<\/p>\n<p>Penalty count: 5-6; Half-time: 0-20; Referee: Belinda Sharpe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW ZEALAND 22 SAMOA 20TOM SMITH, Go Media Stadium, Auckland, Sunday MELE HUFANGA sealed a massive second-half comeback&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-224714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}