Samoa captain Junior Paulo still backing his side to go far in World Cup as he explains defeat to “quality” England

Samoa arrived in Newcastle on Saturday as favourites largely down to the NRL Grand Finalists in the squad that in the eyes of many negated their lack of preparation.

However, they were blown away by a brilliant England side who ran in 10 tries in a 60-6 win.

After the game Samoa captain and Parramatta Eels star reflected on the defeat: “I think any team would be struggling if they are that far behind on the scoreboard. We need to be more resilient, it’s hard to stop momentum when it’s going one way but we’ve got to find a way to stop it and go again.

“Yeah any team that turns over the ball that much, the other team is going to capitalise on it. They’re a quality team like they have completing high they’re going to get the result.”

When asked what he thought about England, he acknowledged that they were a good side but also believed that his team are better than what they showed: “They’re a quality team but we’ve definitely got a quality team too. We’ve got to be resilient and bounce back. They outclassed us today, this is the start of the tournament. We’ve got to go back, regroup and move on to next week.”

He also believed Samoa can still do something in the tournament, but they need players to step up and fill the voids left by injured stars such as Tyrone May: “Yeah I still believe we can do something in this tournament, I believe we have a quality team and despite a few injuries we’ve got guys who will slot in and do the job.”