Samoa star Jarome Luai explains away his side’s shock 60-6 defeat to England

Samoa secured their place in the World Cup quarter-finals on Sunday with a 62-4 defeat of France at Warrington Wolves’ Halliwell Jones Stadium.

For the Samoans, the performance and result was a million miles away from the debacle at St James’ Park which saw them beat 60-6 by England in a game they were favourites in.

After that triumph against France, star player Jarome Luai reflected on the performance on BBC: “Yeah it was good, we completed a lot of sets. The boys have done the simple things right.”

He also noted how good it was to see Taylan May return from injury and score four tries: “It’s good to see him back out there, good to see him get through most of the game okay.”

The stand-off also had to field questions on the transformation from that opening game to now and the Penrith Panthers star believed there was a clear reason behind his side’s defeat to England: “We had limited sessions before England and over the last few weeks we’ve had a lot of training sessions. Our combinations are gelled together. We’ll keep building.

“Since that game, I think we’ve turned things round really well.”

Lastly, he looked ahead to their huge quarter-final clash against Tonga this weekend: “It’s good to see them doing well, they’ve had a bit of success in recent years so hopefully we can give them a good run.”