Three years on from the London 2012’s Super Saturday, major sport returned to the Olympic Stadium. For Jessica Ennis-Hill, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford we had the Barbarians and Samoa in what was a sparring session for the Pacific Islanders before this autumn’s World Cup.
With perfect symmetry the game came at the end of a week Ennis-Hill, Farah and Rutherford struck gold again in China at the world championships. The Barbarians took the honours here, winning 27-24. They have not exactly covered themselves in glory in recent years but they were a lot more competitive than when they were last in London. Last May they shipped 73 points against a young England side but Saturday’s captain Bakkies Botha ensured they remained honest and their seven Australians not needed for World Cup duties had a point to prove.
Samoa were a little too competitive at times. They played all but 17 minutes of the match with 14 players after their lock, Kane Thompson, was shown a red card by John Lacey for punching the Barbarians hooker, Saia Fainga’a, who himself was sent to the sin-bin for obstructing the Newcastle forward.
Four pool games will be played here in the World Cup along with the game for third and fourth place, the so-called Bronze Final, the night before the big one at Twickenham. The stadium is certainly impressive, with its retractable stands that now partly cover that athletics track where Farah triumphed three years ago. West Ham, who move in next year, will find it a world away from homely Upton Park.
The first rugby game at the stadium attracted a decent crowd of 41,039. Not all of them were equivocal in their praise of the stadium. Ian Wiles from East Yorkshire was among the crowd with his nephew Ben. “It reminds me of the Telstra Dome in Melbourne. It’s vast. I went to Twickenham last year and although we were sitting as high as this, we were closer to the action. I would have liked to have been across town watching Hull KR but this was the better match.”
His son Ben added: “Getting to the ground was easy as it was when I was here during the Paralympics. It is a good venue but if I was a West Ham fan I wouldn’t be too happy as you are a long way from the pitch.”
It may have been a bit of strain on the eyes for those in row Z, but the action on the pitch made it worth peering through the binoculars. Bakkies and his new chums made their determined intentions clear as early as the second minute when they shunned a very kickable penalty to give the Highlanders flanker Adam Thomson the chance of scoring the first try of the afternoon.
Anthony Perenise burrowed over for Samoa and Liam Gill and Ben Tapuai, with some lovely footwork, crossed the line for the Barbarians. In between those last two tries there was a comical couple of minutes when the sprinklers in the Samoa half began to spray jets of water into the air. Thompson had his early bath and suddenly all the players could have an early shower.
Northampton’s Ken Pisi helped bring the scores level by the interval with a well-taken try in the corner which Tusi Pisi converted.
After the unexpected showers the real rain began to fall. The impressive Thomson scored a second try before Jack Lam took a quick penalty and dived over near the posts. The Barbarians then fashioned a brilliant second try for the Queenslander Tapuai. It was a score worthy of winning a match.
France and Romania will be back here in three-and-a-half weeks’ time for the first of those pool games. Samoa themselves will have to work on their discipline and a few other things ahead of their first game against the United States in Brighton. Thompson may well be banned for his rush of blood to the head by the time the real battle begins.
