Neil Jenkins, winning his seventy-second cap, was expected to overtake Michael Lynagh’s world record of 911 test rugby points in the match, having drawn equal in the previous match against Japan.
However, it was not the boot of Jenkins that put the first points on the scoreboard. Fullback Silao Leaega slotted over Samoa’s first penalty to take them into a 0-3 lead. Jenkins missed the opportunity to level the scores and surpass Lynagh’s total in the fifth minute; expectant Welsh fans had to wait until the thirteenth minute to celebrate the fly-half’s success. The Welsh were awarded a penalty try and Jenkins’s conversion sent the Welsh lead to 7-3.
Gareth Thomas went over the try line in the corner five minutes later but Jenkins failed to add the additional two points. Just five minutes following Thomas’s try the Samoan’s gained their first five pointer of the afternoon due to a Welsh mistake. After losing a line-out on their own try line lock Lio Falaniko dived over, and together with Leaega’s conversion, brought the scores back to 12-10.
Jenkins gained a penalty on the half hour mark and added another two minutes later to push Wales back out in front at 18-10. This lead was not to last; Stephen Bachop secured two tries in four minutes that completely shook the Welsh game. The first try was well-constructed and involved the impressive Leaega before Bachop ran towards the posts and touched down underneath them. Disappointingly, the second resulted from yet another Welsh mistake; a loose pass from Scott Quinnell was intercepted by the dangerous Bachop, who scored again. With Leaega securing all of the conversions on the day, the Samoan lead stood at 18-24. Jenkins narrowed the deficit slightly by kicking his third penalty of the afternoon before the break but a demoralised Welsh team headed into the break still behind, 21-24.
Soon after the break Jenkins levelled the score with a penalty. Yet just three minutes later Pat Lam scored a magnificent try to guide his team into the lead. Intercepting yet another Welsh pass, this time from new record holder Jenkins, the Samoan captain streaked three quarters of the pitch to secure the touchdown. With the conversion added Samoa led the host nation 24-31.
With the Samoan scrum struggling, Wales were awarded a second penalty try just past the mid-point mark of the second half. Jenkins converted well to level the score once more in this nail-biting climax, but this was to be the last Welsh score of the match. With fifteen minutes of play remaining Leaega – who had been on excellent kicking form all game – forced a try, crossing over in the corner. To complete his brilliant game he converted his own score.
Bad defensive play let Wales down; their spree of consecutive wins was foiled by the Samoans. Coach Graham Henry commented after the game: “Samoa played superbly … We made twelve handling errors and game away three turnovers and at international level you cannot do that and win.”
Despite this set-back Wales still qualified at the top of Pool D; Wales, Argentina and Samoa all had won two games each but with the greatest point total Wales qualified first and Argentina, with a slight points advantage, nudged above Samoa into the quarter-final play-off position.
Wales would meet once-champions Australia in the quarter-finals and would need to drastically improve their haphazard error-strewn play to retain the likelihood of progressing further in the championship.
