Pool C: Samoa announced their World Cup entry with some scintillating running rugby yesterday, and All Blacks legend Michael Jones warned: "We are not here to make up the numbers."
The South Sea Islanders, despite being without English-based players such as Trevor Leota and Henry Tuilagi, scored 10 tries to thrill a 22,000-strong crowd at Subiaco Oval.
Uruguay, crushed 72-6 by South Africa five days ago, were stretched all over the pitch by a Samoan side intent on spinning possession wide.
Centre Brian Lima, playing in his fourth World Cup, and flanker Maurie Fa'asavalu both claimed try doubles, and there were also touchdowns for Tanner Vili, Lome Fa'atau, Sailosi Tagicakibau, Simon Lemalu, Dominic Feaunati and Opeta Palepoi.
Samoa showed enough glimpses to suggest they will not be pushovers for group heavyweights England and South Africa in later Pool C games at Melbourne and Brisbane respectively.
And the only blot on Samoa's copybook was a yellow card for Fa'atau following a high and late tackle on Uruguayan scrum-half Juan Campomar.
Jones, Samoa's assistant coach, said: "We definitely believe in ourselves. We are not here to make up the numbers."
Coach John Boe added: "We like to think that we can attack with a bit of flair, and we scored some good tries. Part of our objective here is to excite our public.."
Uruguay gave as they got in the opening 10 minutes, but although they managed tries from forwards Rodrigo Capo and Pablo Lemoine, Samoa were always on a different level.
Samoa will now be confident of registering a second Pool C victory on Sunday, when Georgia are their opponents.
SAMOA: T Vili; L Fa'atau, T Fanolua, B Lima, S Tagicakibau; E Va'a, S So'oialo; K Lealamanua, J Meredith, J Tomuli, O Palepoi, L Lafaiali'I, P Poulus, M Fa'asavalu, S Sititi (capt). Replacements: D Feaunati for Va'a (49 mins), S Lemalu for Lealamanua (50 mins), K Viliamu for Lafaiali'l (55 mins), M Schwalger for Meredith (60 mins), D Rasmussen for Fanolua (67 mins), D Tuiavi'i for Sititi (74 mins), D Tyrell for So'oialo (76 mins)
URUGUAY: J Menchaca; J Pastore, D Aguirre (capt), M Mendaro, C Baldasarri; B Amarillo, J Campomar; R Sanchez, D Lamelas, P Lemoine, JC Bado, J Alzueta, M Gutierrez, N Grille, R Capo. Replacements: J de Freitas for Mendaro (41 mins), N Brignoni for Gutierrez, I Conti for Grille (both 56 mins) J Viana for Pastore, JM Alvarez for Alzueta (both 59 mins), J Machado for Sanchez (71 mins), JA Perez for Lamelas (74 mins).
Referee: David McHugh (Ireland)
