Samoa have lost three starting stars for the rest of the tournament after their 60-6 hammering at the hands of England.
Braden Hamlin-Uele lasted barely ten minutes before limping out with a calf injury that will see his World Cup ended before it had really begun.
He was followed off by Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, who suffered a syndesmosis injury in the first half and played no further part.
Last off was Tyrone May, who dislocated his hip shortly after the break, causing a long stoppage as the Catalans utlity was stretchered from the field.
“He (May) is in Royal Newcastle Hospital, I believe,” coach Matt Parish said. “We have a few injured guys in there who I don’t think will play any further part in the tournament.
“Braden is a calf and I think Hamiso has syndesmosis. He is in a moon boot and crutches. So I would be surprised if either of those three would take any further part.”
Samoan playmaker Anthony Milford is likely to be facing suspension.
Milford was sent to the sin bin for a high shot on England captain Sam Tomkins in the second half and could be ruled out of their remaining two pool games against Greece and France.
The World Cup has begun – but got off to an inauspicious start at St James Park in Newcastle with the opening ceremony ahead of England v Samoa marred by repeated losses of sound in the stadium.
Leeds rock group The Kaiser Chiefs were set to perform, only for the PA system to break and leave the band, plus a large group of schoolchildren who were due to take part, standing in silence on the pitch.
The three trophies – men’s, women’s and wheelchair – were intended to be delivered with much fanfare by legends Jason Robinson and Kevin Sinfield, but instead ended up being silently placed on plinths to a bemused audience.
World Cup bosses have apologised for the farce.
Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson to try to keep the St James’ Park crowd entertained. Expecting to be singing his band’s hits, Wilson took to sprinting up and down the touchline just to raise spirits as the show was brought to an abrupt end.
“RLWC2021 would like to sincerely apologise for the disrupted Tournament Welcome, which was severely affected by technical failure,” read a statement from the organisers before England went on to raise spirits in the home crowd with their 60-6 win.
“It wasn’t the start we wanted but we would like to thank fans for their patience and for continuing to celebrate the teams and the tournament.”
Tournament CEO Jon Dutton also added: “I take personal responsibility. I’m devastated.”
Prior to the unfortunate mishap, Rob Burrow had got the tournament off to an emotional start when he’d launched the welcome event in Newcastle.
The former Leeds and England halfback, who is battling motor neurone disease, received a rapturous welcome from the 43,000 crowd.
He was in the main stand at St James’ Park accompanied by his parents Geoff and Irene, to watch the parade of the flags representing all 32 teams across the men’s, women’s and wheelchair competitions.
Kaiser Chiefs took to the pitch as the headline music act and got through their hit ‘Oh My God’ before former England captain Kevin Sinfield and dual-code international Jason Robinson brought out the Paul Barriere trophy, awarded to the winners of the men’s competition on November 19.
Later, the glitches were resolved in time for the national anthems, though the kick off was delayed as a result, leaving former England international Jon Wilkin complaining on the BBC: “I wonder, at the Olympics would you chuck the opening ceremony before the 100m final? You can say it’s funny – but it’s not.”
In the second half, fans around the world lost footage as another technical problem caused an outage on Fox League and the world feed for viewers outside of the UK.
The Kiwis have suffered a major blow ahead of their first match with star halfback Jahrome Hughes ruled out with an upper leg injury.
Hughes has a thigh strain and will not be risked against Lebanon. It is not thought to be related to the calf injury that caused him to miss several games this year for the Melbourne Storm.
He will be replaced in the halves by Kieran Foran, who will play halfback alongside Dylan Brown. Foran was initially named on the bench, with his place there now taken by Jeremy Marshall-King, who will make his Kiwis debut.
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