Lima Sopoaga made a strong debut for Manu Samoa, helping the side to a 28-14 win over the Barbarians in Brive, France at the weekend.
The match were among pre-Rugby World Cup warm up matches across Europe at the weekend.
Selected at flyhalf for Manu Samoa, ex-All Black Sopoaga showed glimpses of his old self, kicking two penalties and a conversion for a personal tally of seven points in the game.
He was not in the Manu Samoa squad for the July test series, the Pacific Nations Cup, but head coach Seilala Mapusua named him in the World Cup squad.
Sopoaga did not disappoint as he commanded the Samoans’ attacks and varied their options with place kicks and territorial searchers in the 60 minutes he was on the field.
Manu Samoa scored three tries to the Barbarians’ two, with Alamanda Motuga, Tumua Manu and replacement halfback Ereatara Enari getting on the try-scoring sheet.
Christian Leali’ifano, who replaced Sopoaga in the second spell, kicked a penalty.
The Barbarians scored tries through captain Jean-Luc du Preez and winger Henry Speight.
The game featured five Samoans in the Barbarians’ outfit, four of them who were part of Mapusua’s squad leading up to the announcement of the Manu Samoa squad for the World Cup – Tim Nanai-Williams, Jack Lam, Aki Seiuli, Jeffrey Toomaga-Allen and Joe Tekori.
The side will now prepare to meet Ireland in their last pre-Rugby World Cup match this week.
Former New Zealand sevens rep Ben Lam, who also made his debut for Samoa, left the field with a suspected knee injury but was seen walking around later.
Mapusua said the match was a good test.
“In terms of the game this week against the Barbarians, it gave us an opportunity to have a closer look at our combinations and also test our game plan against an opposition”, he said.
He expects to name another full-strength lineup againt the Irish, who are the number one team in the world.
SOURCE: RNZ PACIFIC/PACNEWS
