Four tries in twelve minutes either side of the interval saw Samoa overcome the challenge of Chile to commence their Rugby World Cup campaign with a BP win in Bordeaux.

Commencing their tournament, Samoa started with a spring in their step, early attacking pressure yielding the game’s first points as former Aussie, the Wallabies top points scorer in Japan four years ago, Christian Leali’ifano slotted a straightforward penalty for 3-0.

Chile came roaring back however, as another blistering break by flying full-back, Inaki Ayarza, released Rodrigo Fernandez, romping into the twenty-two.  Knocking hard on the door, they shortly burst through via prop Matias Dittus dotting down.

Better was to come as Samoan centre, Ulupano Seuteni, was sent to the sin bin for an off-the-ball tackle, Santiago Videla rubbed salt in the wounds with a fine conversion.

Swiftly, Leali’ifano reduced the deficit to one as a high-scoring first ten minutes flew by in Bordeaux.

Early ill-discipline was seriously hindering Chile’s enterprise, Leali’ifano edging Samoa 9-7 in front with his third successful penalty.

Thirty minutes in and the pendulum swung again, this time the Chileans a point ahead after Matias Garafulic, on kicking duties with Videla off injured, firing through the posts.

Four minutes out from the interval, Leali’ifano lodged his fourth kick of the day to restore Samoa’s slender, two-point advantage.

It got even better for them before the break, a dominant scrum popping up to a lovely Leali’ifano grubber kick through, gathered by winger Danny Toala, who found full-back, Duncan Paia’aua, gliding into score in the corner.

A lethal Leali’ifano conversion left it 19-10 at half time, Chile a score behind despite again impressing.

Picking up where they left off, Samoa firmly put their foot to the floor and extended their lead inside two second half minutes when, despite being tackled, Theo McFarland audaciously popped a perfect pass up for scrumhalf, Jonathan Taumateine to acrobatically collect and dive over.

The conversion went wide but fourteen points up now, there were Samoan smiles aplenty.

Taking complete control, a third try soon followed, as a monster maul rumbled towards the line, flanker Fritz Lee the man credited with touching the ball down to put Samoa 29-10 up, heading into the last half hour.

Moments later, the bonus point try arrived, a carbon copy of Lee’s as replacement hooker, Sama Malolo was the man to finish off another rumbling maul, Chile unable to stem the tide and suffering further when Leali’ifano added an easy two points.

More woe was inflicted on Chile midway through the second half, replacement flanker, Alfonso Escobar shown yellow for a shoulder tackle.

Immediately though, it was fourteen against fourteen as Samoa’s scrumhalf replacement, Ereatara Enari went to the sideline for a technical foul, both going to the bunker review to see if either would be upgraded to a red card offence.

Both, to the players’ relief, remained at yellow cards.

With nine minutes, a scrappy spell became scrappier with replacement prop, Esteban Inostroza on and then promptly sent to the side as he saw yellow, suffering for Chile’s frequent ill-discipline.

Malola was denied a late brace by a knock-on, neatly encapsulating the lack of cohesion on both sides of the closing stages.

With the last play though, the replacement hooker did double his try tally, spinning across from close range and Leali’ifano making it a final score of 43-10.

Really, the match’s outcome swung emphatically to Samoa once Paia’aua powered over, three swift tries following after the break as they ultimately picked up maximum points with relative ease under blistering Bordeaux conditions.

Samoa are back in action soon enough, facing Argentina on Friday afternoon in St Etienne, Chile are in Lile the next day to face England, looking to turn bruises against the teams ranked above them into long-lasting scars.