Two-Try Ireland End Losing Run

Ronan O’Gara’s 66th-minute try steered Ireland to a hard-fought win at the Aviva Stadium, as the Pacific Nations Cup champions pushing the home side all the way.

The result saw Declan Kidney’s men end a run of four successive Test defeats, ahead of the visit of New Zealand, the world’s number one team, next week.

Tries from Ireland number 8 Jamie Heaslip and Samoan winger Alesana Tuilagi, midway through the first half, were the highlights of a well-contested opening 40 minutes.

Heaslip plunged over for his fifth Test try after a series of pick and goes from the Irish forwards, while Tuilagi profited from a slick midfield break initiated by Tasesa Lavea and Seilala Mapusua.

Ronan O’Gara, who converted Heaslip’s 18th-minute effort, bookended the half with two penalties as Ireland took a six-point buffer into the interval.

Samoa enjoyed more possession as the game wore on and their full-back Paul Williams kicked the first of two penalty attempts to close the gap to 13-10.

However, Ireland, whose lineout was well run by debutant lock Devin Toner, regained control to see O’Gara snipe over for the clinching try and Cian Healy almost got over for a third as the hosts finished strongly.

The Irish management made ten personnel changes and a positional switch to the team that started against South Africa last Saturday. Toner came in to make his Test debut, while his Leinster colleague Sean O’Brien won his first start in the back row.

Luke Fitzgerald was given a chance to impress at full-back, the O’Gara-Peter Stringer partnership resumed at half-back and John Hayes and Denis Leamy returned in the forwards. At 37, Hayes surpassed Mike Gibson as Ireland’s oldest Test player, while Leamy was back on the international stage for the first time in 12 months.

The selected Samoan side was peppered with top quality players from the English Premiership and French Top 14 Championship, the most notable being Mapusua (London Irish) and Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers) in the back-line and Filipo Lavea Levi (Newcastle Falcons) and George Stowers (London Irish) in the pack.

They also had two former Connacht players on board, in the form of flanker Ofisa Treviranus, a brother of Ray Ofisa, and centre Gavin Williams.

Full report to follow…