SA v Samoa Post Match Comments

Jake White: “Those four injuries (Luke Watson, Ricky Januarie, Wayne Julies and Ashwin Willemse), added to the fact that we made 13 changes for this match, saw us lose structure in the second half. But Samoa also deserve credit for showing guts. It was nice to win today and make it three in a row. The Wallabies have also won three and the All Blacks two, so all three teams have built up some momentum. But as far as we are concerned, the wins against England and Samoa are now irrelevant and the tough competition starts in the Tri-Nations. We have a really good record at home especially against Australia, and I believe we can do well over the next two weeks. Today was a win-win situation for us in that we rested our top players and still claimed a victory.”

John Smit: “I thought it was a good performance under the circumstances. It did get a little scrappy and that wasn’t the best second half we’ve ever had. We wanted to stick to our game plan, but there were a lot of stoppages that prevented us from finding our rhythm. I think we probably only played 20 minutes of rugby today. But we managed to give other guys an opportunity to play – four years ago Derick Hougaard was tackled by the Chiropractor (Brian Lima) and now he’s the Man of the Match.”

Derick Hougaard: “It’s nice to be back. It was my first Test in South Africa and it was great to get the win. We didn’t play well in the second half, because we didn’t have much of the ball and struggled to take the ball through the phases. But we’re still pleased with the win.”

Samoa captain: “It was buy a lekker. Buy a donkey…”