Fa’atiga Lemalu scored two tries on Sunday as Samoa beat defending champion Japan 27-26 in Tokyo to win rugby’s Pacific Nations Cup for the second time.
Ryan Nicholas missed the conversion of a try by Japan captain Toshiaki Hirose in the 77th minute to allow Samoa to hang on to their unbeaten record in the four-nation tournament and add a second Pacific title to their first in 2010.
Japan led 16-0 after 27 minutes and took a 16-14 lead to halftime.
But Samoa injected fresh players from the bench in the second half and their contribution was decisive as they closed out Samoa’s third win of the tournament after earlier beating Tonga 20-18 and Fiji 29-26.
Japan finished with three-straight losses, after losing 25-19 to Fiji and 24-20 to Tonga, to make a poor start to their new era under former Australian coach Eddie Jones.