For Samoa, a second successive World Cup ends in defeat by Australia, after being beaten 30-10 in the final four years ago.
The two nations have met six times, with Australia winning all six.
But this one hurt more. Samoa clearly felt they could win, as their ultra-aggressive Siva Tau war dance pre-match proved – getting right in the Australian faces, even forehead to forehead in some cases.
But they were aggrieved by some debatable refereeing decisions, including two disallowed tries – Crichton in the first half, then Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow denied with 10 minutes to go after contact between Manuleleua and Liam Martin was deemed illegal.
It bubbled over shortly before the break, when Spencer Leniu was sin-binned for dissent by Australian referee Adam Gee.
“You guys saw the game. You report on it,” was Samoa coach Ben Gardiner’s terse response to questions about the decisions.
On whether his side cost themselves with a lack of discipline, he said: “I’m not quite sure.
“On the back of some of the penalties that were given, we just didn’t react very well. There was one thing into another and then a try. It made it difficult to be able to fight back from that.
“And then to be down by 18 points, 20 points at half-time, to chase back from that… I thought we did well in the second half to fight back.
“But then again, we scored a try and gave up another one straight away. We bounced off too many tackles in that early period, missed too many tackles in the game in general.
“That had nothing to do with the emotion. That’s a Test match, that’s what you do. It’s physical, there’s push and shove, stand your ground.”
