Irish eyes riling, and Samoa in firing line

Simon Easterby believes Ireland’s latent fury from their shock loss to Japan could turn their pack of forwards into a “different animal” against Samoa.

Ireland will roll out all their big guns for Saturday’s Pool A decider against the Samoans in Fukuoka, with quarterfinal qualification on the line.

Head coach Joe Schmidt made seven changes to the pack for last Thursday’s 35-0 win over Russia in Kobe, and should restore front-line stars like captain Rory Best to take on Samoa.

The bulk of Ireland’s pack have not featured since the stunning 19-12 defeat to hosts Japan in Shizuoka on September 28 – and forwards coach Easterby reckons that group will be itching to deliver a riposte.

Asked if the pack will channel those frustrations into the Samoa clash, Easterby said: “I think so; there were a few elements we didn’t get right.

“I think our scrum has been effective, it’s been a good weapon.

“We’ve had a couple of maul opportunities that we didn’t quite nail, one for a penalty against us for disconnecting but we had a good set-up.

“We had some good outfield mauls where we got a little bit of success at changing the picture in defence.

“If we can bring all of that this weekend, along with the quality ballcarrying and quality work in the contact area on the attack side, then we’ll hopefully find a different animal on Saturday.

“But Samoa won’t just roll over and allow us to do that. We’ve seen how tough they can be in large parts of their games and that presents a challenge in itself.”