Sam was brought up on long drives and the dusty fields of north-west New South Wales, where he developed his love of rugby from an early age. He joined ESPN after a five-year stint heading up Fox Sports Australia's digital rugby coverage.
SYDNEY -- David Pocock got through a solid 58 minutes as the Wallabies wrapped up their preparations for the Rugby World Cup with a less-than-convincing 19-point victory over Samoa at Bankwest Stadium.
But it was otherwise a mixed final hit-out for Australia before they head for Japan, after Samoa roared into life after halftime to leave the result in the balance inside the final quarter.
When Pocock departed the Wallabies were leading 22-8. But he could have done little to stop the try that came shortly after he headed for the bench, as Samoa cut through the heart of Australia's defence for Dwayne Polataivao to complete his double.
Samoa's replacement scrum-half had earlier been the beneficiary of a huge scrum from his forward pack that allowed No. 8 Afaesetti Amosa to scoot down the blindside and draw Marika Koroibete for Polataivao to cross untouched. The Wallabies front-row, at that point, had copped a hammering.
Trailing by just seven points with 15 minutes to play, the large Samoan contingent in the stands came to life and they were rewarded with a series of thumping hits from their heroes in blue.
But there would be no repeat of the 2011 upset a few kilometres east at ANZ Stadium as Dane Haylett-Petty finished off the Wallabies' best passage of play for the second half by slipping his defender to touch down with nine minutes to play.
A post-siren Matt Toomua try took the Wallabies out to a flattering 34-15 triumph they will want to move on quickly from, a second-half in which they invited Samoa back into the contest, in particular.
"The first half was good, the second half we just didn't build enough," Wallabies coach Michael Cheika said. "We built in the first half, just kept staying at it; did the right things.
"We did the same things in the second half but less consistently; I think we're trying to look for more when we didn't really need to look for more. We just needed to keep doing what we were doing and building a score.
"But I think off the back of the two weeks we've had, a lot of work's gone in there, yeah I think it was a good hit-out for us, a really good one."
Only hours after New Zealand had obliterated Tonga 92-7 in Hamilton, and England and Scotland had recorded comfortable 37- and 27-point triumphs over Italy and Georgia respectively overnight, the Wallabies' wider squad hardly delivered a message that the team is humming and has options aplenty, despite what coach Michael Cheika said after fulltime.
It is true that they were without skipper Michael Hooper, and first-choice starters Scott Sio, Allan Alaalatoa, Tolu Latu, Izack Rodda, Rory Arnold, Isi Naisarsani and Kurtley Beale, but the stand-in personnel otherwise failed to sway any potential selection calls for the Wallabies' World Cup opener against Fiji in Sapporo in a fortnight's time.
