Samoa scraped a 36-27 win over Fiji at Suva's National Stadium on Saturday to put them in charge of the Pacific Rim championship qualifying tournament.

Samoa, with a bonus point for their five tries, now leapfrog Tonga to go
top of the three-team group with nine points. The top two finishers qualify
for the Pacific Rim finals in Japan.

Fiji picked up a bonus point too for their four tries but missed a simple
opportunity for a second point when they took a tap penalty in front of the
posts in injury time when a kick for goal would have been enough.

"We butchered a bonus point there," Fiji coach Greg Smith said, adding that
he actually felt better than two weeks ago when Fiji lost to Tonga.

Samoa led 29-10 with 15 minutes to play, but Fiji began throwing the ball
around with more panache which led to three late tries as their backline swung into action and nearly snatched the match.

"In the end our ball retention let us down again," Smith said. "Had we
strung more passes together earlier in the game, then we could have kept the
pressure on."

Samoan No.8 Junior Paramore scored two push-over tries from five-metre scrums in the first half as Fiji struggled to hold their pack together.

Fiji halfback Jacob Rauluni pulled one back for Fiji, but at half-time the
visitors led 17-10.

Samoan coach John Boe labelled the match "island rugby at its best", noting the numerous crunching tackles from both teams and Fijis surging comeback that ignited the 9,000-strong crowd.

"I thought Fiji played an incredible game," Boe said. "Im just pleased we
managed to hang on."

Wounded in the wars was big Fiji lock Simon Raiwalui who departed after just 12 minutes with a broken nose. Even Samoan hardman Trevor Leota spent some time in the blood bin.

Yellow carded for their sins were Fiji captain Greg Smith and Samoas replacement hooker Ace Tiatia.

Samoas assistant coach Michael Jones talked of the psychological boost the
win gives his players because the last time Samoa played in Suva, in 1996,
they lost 60-0.

"It was very important for us to win here for many more reasons than the
obvious," Jones said. "It was a good morale boost to defeat Fiji on their home ground and that made this a very huge thing for us.

"Fiji were the better team in the second half and when they are in that
mood, there arent very many teams in the world who can keep up with them.
They were quite rampant at one point."

But two tries against the run of play had given the Samoans just enough of
a cushion.

Canterbury Crusaders wing Afato Sooalo touched down twice, while Earl Vaa
made the most of a stupid error in the Fiji scrum to score just as Fiji were
getting back into the game.

Fullback Norman Ligairi joined the backline and used his pace to outrun the Samoans to the corner for Fijis second try, then big centre Vili Satala scored two more to give Fiji some hope.
But in the end, Samoa walked away happy after their third win in a row over
Fiji, who must now win their two remaining games to have a chance of
qualifying for next months semi-finals in Japan.