The team from the Pacific Islands have a very tidy squad that is filled with ex-Australian and ex-New Zealand internationals, so things could get really messy for Chile who are the lowest ranked side at the tournament.
Samoa v Chile
Saturday 16 September
Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux
Samoa 1/150 | Draw 50/1 | Chile 10/1
Samoa will be looking for the full five-point haul here, which would pile a lot of pressure on Argentina, who lost to England in their Pool D clash. A big bonus point win here for the Samoans could well see them top the standings in the Pool headed into Round 2 of the tournament.
The Samoans are likely to field a very tidy squad this Saturday which should feature the likes of Charlie Faumnia, Lima Sopoaga, Christian Leali’ifano, Michael Alaalatoa, Fritz Lee, Danny Toala and Steven Luatua. These are vastly experienced players who either have loads of Super Rugby under their belts or have been capped at international level by other nations.
Speaking of Super Rugby, one of the real stand outs of the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season, Miracle Fai’ilagi, is also set to feature. Expect the Moana Pasifika star to have an absolute field day at the breakdown and with ball in hand this weekend.
While Samoa are kicking off their campaign here, this will be Chile’s second fixture with the South Americans having already played Japan on the opening weekend. And while they did give a decent account of themselves against the Brave Blossoms during the opening quarter of their clash, they fell right off the boil in the final 50-minutes of the fixture, eventually going down 42-12 with Japan scoring 35 points in those final 50 minutes.
I’m expecting Chile to be competitive for the first 20-minutes of the game so they may be worth back on the race to 10-points market. Samoa should clean them up in the second half though and that’s where I’ll be having my bigger bet which is Samoa on the minus.
Verdict: Samoa (-33.5) 87/100
