Spencer Leniu has recreated his grand final heroics to inspire Samoa to a comprehensive victory over Papua New Guinea.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Samoa trailed 6-4 at a sold-out Santos National Football Stadium in Port Moresby when Leniu was injected into the contest midway through the first half, with a raucous crowd daring to dream of a Kumuls upset.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The prop, however, had other ideas and produced a match-turning stint reminiscent of his performance for the Roosters in the NRL grand final.<\/p>\n
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Spencer Leniu Try<\/p>\n
Leniu scored a try, nearly had a second, and ran for 166 metres with 10 tackle breaks in a 38-minute effort. By the time the 26-year-old left the field midway through the second half, Samoa had turned a two-point deficit into a 28-6 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From there, Samoa added seven more tries to close out a 64-6 victory and continue the nation’s undefeated start to the IRL Rugby League World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ben Gardiner’s side has now scored 142 points across the past two weeks and will carry plenty of momentum into next Sunday’s showdown with fierce rivals Tonga at a sold-out CommBank Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both teams are unbeaten and will be out to secure a semi-final berth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Kumuls were outclassed but remain a chance of progressing to the knockout phase with a win over England next week if other results go their way.<\/p>\n
It took Samoa just one minute to open the scoring on Saturday after Francis Manuleleua latched on to a short kick-off and raced 40 metres down field. The lock was eventually dragged down before Sua Fa’alogo crossed out wide a couple of plays later.<\/p>\n
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Sualauvi Fa’alogo Try<\/p>\n
While Samoa nearly scored a second a couple of minutes later, it was Papua New Guinea who struck next through halfback Bailey Biondi-Odo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The hosts looked set to extend their lead after a Dudley Dotoi break in the next set but Robert Derby was unable to latch on to a grubber in the in-goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Bailey Biondi-Odo Try<\/p>\n
The teams traded sets until Samoa coach Ben Gardiner turned to his bench and injected Leniu into the fray.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The prop crashed over for a try in the 30th minute to put his team in front.\u00a0Leniu nearly had a second soon after but was denied by the Bunker after grounding the ball centimetres short of the line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Samoa, however, had one last try left in them before the break when Brian To’o soared through the air to tap a cross-field kick back infield to former Penrith teammate Stephen Crichton. The centre juggled the ball but did enough to secure possession to hand his side a 14-6 lead at the break.<\/p>\n
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Stephen Crichton Try<\/p>\n
Leniu kept the momentum rolling after the break and it didn’t take long for Gardiner’s side to kick further clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fa’alogo crossed for his second in the 44th minute before Manuleleua crashed over and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow got in on the action.<\/p>\n
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Francis Manuleleua Try<\/p>\n
By the time Tabuai-Fidow scored his second in the 69th minute, the lead had blown out to 42 points and Samoa showed no signs of slowing down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Six tries in the final 15 minutes took Gardiner’s men past 60 and they will now turn their focus to next week’s blockbuster against Tonga.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spencer Leniu has recreated his grand final heroics to inspire Samoa to a comprehensive victory over Papua New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-939097","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\/939097","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=939097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}