Wynne Gray's 50 greatest rugby moments: No.16

Scott Gibbs and Richie Collins of Wales tackle Western Samoa's Pat Lam. Photo / Getty

Wales toured Australia in mid-1991 to prepare for the World Cup but their final match ended in widespread shame. They were beaten 63-6 before fighting broke out among the group at the official dinner at Ballymore.

Coach Ron Waldron left his post a few weeks before the World Cup and Alan Davies took over in shambolic circumstances. After finishing third in the original World Cup, Wales felt they would give the second event a nudge.

In the opening round they were drawn to meet Western Samoa, who had been ignored for the first tournament and dismissed by commentators north of the equator as not much of a threat in their debut. Bookies rated them as 250-1 outsiders to win the tournament but those odds plummeted to 40-1 after their opening game.

Samoa's ferocious tackling and attacking instincts flummoxed Wales while All Black great Colin Meads travelled to watched the match and gave a more contemptuous assessment of his old foes.

He thought 80 per cent of the Welsh side were scared and out of condition.

Samoa won 16-13 with a touch of luck because television match officials were not part of the landscape then. They would have picked up that Samoan centre To'o Vaega had lost an in-goal race to the ball with Welsh halfback Robert Jones.

Visiting coach Peter Schuster called it the "greatest day for our rugby nation" while Wales left for a rehabilitation centre. It was a booking they had made long before the tournament but which served a much needed purpose after their frightful night.

Jokes at Wales' expense continued, including one observation that they were lucky the whole of Samoa had not been available as captain Peter Fatialofa and comrades like Apollo Perelini, Sila Vaifale, France Bunce and Brian Lima left Cardiff Arms Park to growing adulation.

They continued to make an impact, losing to the eventual tournament winners, Australia, 9-3 in shocking conditions and beating Argentina 35-12 before succumbing to Scotland in the quarter-finals.

Those exploits made such a mark in Samoa that a souvenir issue of stamps was printed.