Impressive Finish To Tour

The Ireland management expressed their satisfaction with the performance of their side in the final game of the tour just ended, a game against the Samoans that finished in a 40-14 victory. And they were quite justified in that satisfaction given the circumstances of the win. It should be remebered that the Samoans, playing in front of a 10,000 home crowd had played three warm-up games, winning two and had a much more settled look about them than the Irish. But perhaps more significantly, the temperature at Apia Park was in the region of 35 degrees which resulted in two players – new cap Anthony Horgan and Jonathan Bell having to leave the field in the second half suffering from sun-stroke. Prior to kick off Alan Quinlan cried off becuse of a stomach bug and that upset afforded the opportunity for Aiden McCullen to win his first cap.

If the game itself was a personal triumph for Ronan O’Gara – his tally of 32 points, included the full hand, try (2), conversion (2), penalty (5) and drop-goal – it also proved a a very useful outing for Paul O’Connell, Simon Easterby and Eric Miller. Given the treatment meted out to Miller the previous week, his performance was truly remarkable and must certainly push him very much into the frame for RWC squad selection.

After a mixed bag of a first half, at the end of which they led 9-7, Ireland took the game by the scruff of the neck in the sweltering heat of the second half. The pack were simply superb and O’Gara set them on their way with his fourth penalty two minutes after the restart and eight minutes later the game had it’s first try when Mike Mullins carved the opening which ended with the first of two tries for O’Gara.

With the Miller/O’Connell inspired Irish pack totally dominant, the rout continued with another O’Gara penalty, a try from Miller, a second from O’Gara and then a glorious drop-goal from the Cork out-half just before he retired to be replaced by Paul Burke.

In the closing stages, Samoa managed to get across the Irish line when Earl Va’a scored but it was a score that did nothing to take away from the Irish performance.

Ireland. G Dempsey; J Kelly, M Mullins, J Bell (D Wallace 79), A Horgan (G D’Arcy 52); R O’Gara (P Burke 76), G Easterby (B O’Meara 76); M Horan, S Byrne (P Shields 70), R Corrigan (Capt) (E Byrne 70), L Cullen (D O’Callaghan 18), P O’Connell, S Easterby, E Miller, A McCullen.

Samoa. F Fili; L Fa’atau, D Rasmussen (G Elisara 73), B Lima, R Fanuatanu; E Va’a, D Tyrell (S Sooialo 50); K Lealamanua, T Leota (J Meredith 65), J Tomuli (T Leupolu 44), O Palepoi, L Lafaialii, K Viliamu (D Tuavi’I 70), S Sititi (capt), M Fa’asavalu.

Referee. P Honness (New Zealand).