Pat Richards piled on the points for Ireland

The Irish needed a winning margin of six points or more to advance to the next stage after being given little hope prior to the tournament of being anything more than whipping boys.

Wigan's Pat Richards was the star of the show, scoring a hat-trick and kicking a further 10 points.
 
Simon Finnigan, Sean Gleeson and Liam Finn also crossed to send their highly fancied opponents out of the competition.

Samoa piled the pressure on Ireland from the start but Andy Kelly's side showed some real defensive resolve.

The Wolfhounds were handed a large bit of luck when Tony Puletua was denied a try by video referee Steve Ganson for obstruction by Harrison Hansen, but, after weathering the storm, two quick tries put them in control.
 
First, Lee Doran's high kick was touched down by Richards on 13 minutes and then, moments later, Bob Beswick broke through the Samoa defence and passed inside to Finnigan.

Things got even better when a Finn kick was spilled by Francis Meli and Gleeson got a hand to the ball to ground it and, after missing his first two kicks, Richards added the extras to give the Irish a shock 14-0 lead.

Samoa fightback

Given their attacking pedigree it was no surprise when Samoa came back into the game on 24 minutes after the Irish defence failed to deal with Ben Roberts's high kick and Nigel Vagana capitalised to score.

A penalty by Wayne Kerr put more pressure on the Irish line and Misi Taulapapa went over to cut the Irish lead and Roberts again converted before a Richards penalty to give his side a 16-12 lead at halftime.

After their slow start to the first half, Ireland started the second half strongly and Richards grounded Karl Fitzpatrick's high looping pass for his second try of the game.
Once again he was unable to add the extras but the Wigan star was successful six minutes later with a penalty.

The Irish thought they had scored again when winger Damien Blanch, hat-trick hero in last week's 22-20 defeat by Tonga, went 80 metres after gathering a loose ball only to be brought back for a knock-on.

As the pressure mounted Samoa lost their discipline and Richards made them pay with two more penalties before Finn scored after seizing on a defensive error on 70 minutes.

Richards then had the final say when he dived on a loose ball to complete his hat-trick and seal the historic victory.

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