earlier in the tournament<\/a>, was a strong statement ahead of the code’s World Cup next year.<\/p>\nAfter Samoa led through tries to backs Brian To\u2019o and Simi Sasagi, New Zealand\u2019s took control with interchange forwards Naufahu Whyte and Erin Clark, and man of the match Dylan Brown heavily involved.<\/p>\n
Second-half tries to Isaiah Papali\u2019i, Casey McLean, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, and another to Papali\u2019i sealed the win against the tiring Samoans.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe boys dug so deep \u2014 I couldn\u2019t be prouder,\u201d Foran said. \u201cTo finish on a high with this group means everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samoa dominant early<\/p>\n
With a passionate crowd firmly in their corner Samoa took an early advantage when winger To’o dived over acrobatically in the corner after being played in by former Penrith Panthers teammate Jerome Luai.<\/p>\n
Samoa doubled its advantage when Sasagi intercepted a pass by Foran to sprint 80 meters to score under the posts.<\/p>\n
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New Zealand responded with a deserved try when Whyte ran a clever line off Clark’s pass to beat the Samoan goal line defense.<\/p>\n
Talagi added a penalty goal in the last action of the half for a 14-6 lead at the break.<\/p>\n
New Zealand run rampant<\/p>\n
The half-time break appeared to help New Zealand regroup as they quickly reduced the deficit to two points after Foran and Brown combined to send over Papali\u2019i, before a Jamayne Isaako penalty goal brought New Zealand level.<\/p>\n
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Clark then grabbed a deserved try when he barged over the whitewash from close range, before James Fisher-Harris created space for Brown to send winger Casey McLean over to extend the lead to 24-14.<\/p>\n
Late tries to Papali\u2019i and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad completed the second half rout as Samoa visibly wilted in the final minutes of an enthralling, fast-paced contest.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP rugby: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/rugby<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYDNEY (AP) \u2014 New Zealand have reclaimed the Pacific Championships in emphatic fashion, storming home to a 36-14…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[70623,87712,31678,111,43,139,69,5902],"class_list":{"0":"post-126053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-dylan-brown","9":"tag-international-career","10":"tag-kieran-foran","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-samoa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}