Winning end to Irish tour
Ireland ended their tour of Australia and the Pacific with a 40-12 win over Manu Samoa at Apia Park on Friday, Munster fly-half Ronan O'Gara starring with an impressive 32-point haul.
The win brought down the curtain on their tour and indeed their current season, with a trip that included a 45-16 defeat at the hands of Australia and a 40-19 victory over Tonga.
On Friday, despite being at the end of a long international season, the players managed to keep their minds very sharply focused against Samoa in this their only home game before the World Cup.
Ireland had got off to a slow start, and despite a trio of early O'Gara penalties, it was Samoa wing Ron Fanuatanu who touched down the game's first try, restricting Ireland's half-time lead to 9-7.
Fly-half Earl Va'a converted, but it was to be Irish dominance all the way from there, as captain Reggie Corrigan's men wrapped the game up, thanks in no small part to O'Gara, who was in for Ulster's David Humphreys at fly-half, and gave coach Eddie O'Sullivan a real selection headache ahead of the World Cup.
O'Gara nailed his fourth penalty after the break, before dazzling the crowd with a well-taken dummy to go under the posts for the tourists' opening try.
After another penalty from the Munsterman, back rower Eric Miller charged down a kick and scored their second try, before O'Gara showed great support from a Gordon D'Arcy run to pop up for his own second try of the match.
There was just time for a spectacular drop-goal before the fly-half was replaced by Harlequins' Paul Burke, who kicked a penalty to wrap up the Irish scoring.
Samoa fly-half Va'a grabbed a late consolation try for his side, but the home side had been completely outplayed by the Irish, especially in the latter stages.
Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan told Britain's Press Association after the match: "For me we've had some very good performances this year, but this was right up there with the very good ones, Murrayfield and Australia in Dublin.
"Conditions were appalling, we had two players with heat stroke and to win that game showed tremendous character.
"The defence again was excellent, the first try they got was the first mistake we made in the match, a loose kick over the top and they're the best in the world at that."
The scorers:
For Samoa:
Tries: Fanuatanu, Va'a
Con: Va'a
For Ireland:
Tries: O'Gara 2, Miller
Cons: O'Gara 2
Pens: O'Gara 5, Burke
DG: O'Gara
The teams:
Samoa: 15 Fa'atonu Fili, 14 Lome Fa'atau, 13 Dale Rasmussen, 12 Brian Lima, 11 Ron Fanuatanu, 10 Earl Va'a, 9 Denning Tyrell, 8 Semo Sititi (captain), 7 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 6 Kitiona Viliamu, 5 Leo Lafaialii, 4 Opeta Palepoi, 3 Jeremy Tomuli, 2 Trevor Leota, 1 Kas Lealamanua.
Ireland: 15 Girvan Dempsey, 14 John Kelly, 13 Mike Mullins, 12 Jonathan Bell, 11 Anthony Horgan, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Guy Easterby, 8 Eric Miller, 7 Alan Quinlan, 6 Simon Easterby, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Leo Cullen, 3 Reggie Corrigan (captain), 2 Shane Byrne, 1 Marcus Horan.
Referee: Paul Honiss (New Zealand)
Touch judges: Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand, Lyndon Bray (New Zealand)
Television Match Official: Sandy MacNeill (Australia)
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