Live: Kangaroos vs Samoa
By Jon Healy
70' Samoa crosses after some chaos ball but it's ruled no try
They've got the cattle and the skill to throw the ball around and score some points doing it.
After going side to side and all around, Jarome Luai rolls in a grubber for Izack Tago, who offloads to Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow to score.
Referee Adam Gee says no try because of a potential obstruction on Liam Martin.
Oh, the contact is minimal and absolutely oversold by Martin, who was brushed on the chin by Francis Manuleleua's lead run.
But it's enough to earn a penalty for obstruction.
Samoa isn't happy and rightfully so. That's embarrassing for Liam Martin, one of the toughest blokes in footy. If you're going to go down like that you should have to go off for an HIA.
HAT-TRICK FOR REECE WALSH!
The Kangaroos spin it right and Tom Trbojevic sets sail down the right.
He's tracked down but doesn't panic as he steps back inside a couple and offloads back in-field. The ball finds Cameron Munster, who explodes into a seam in the defence and Reece Walsh looms up on the inside to support his Queensland skipper and get himself a hat-trick.
65' Volkman almost flubs his lines
Ronald Volkman goes for a 30/20, but it comes up short. It's almost out on the full but bounces about 5 centimetres inside the touchline.
Samoa is over again!
The comeback has had a few false starts but it gets another shot in the arm as a little jink in the middle of the field by Ronald Volkman seems to confuse the defence and Samoa spins it left.
It looks like Australia has numbered up, but Izack Tago pins the ears back and outpaces Kotoni Staggs to score.
There are a few nervous moments as Tago bounced short and then regathered and eventually grounded it, but the bunker eventually confirms.
58' Penalty to Australia but they can't make it count
The high kick goes up for Jack Bostock for a contest with the man he replaced in the Blues line-up, and the smaller Samoan tackles Bostock in the air.
The Kangaroos go on the attack but Cameron Munster's basketball pass hits the ground and is swooped on by Jarome Luai.
57' Has Stephen Crichton just hurt his club teammate?
A bit of concern for Jacob Preston after he's hit low by Stephen Crichton, who slips down and lands on his ankle.
Preston takes a while to get back to his feet but he's going to carry on.
53' More villain stuff from Jarome Luai
The Kangaroos are pressing right on the Samoan line and Tom Dearden is ultimately held up by a slew of blue jerseys.
One of them is Jarome Luai, who squeezes Dearden's head in a textbook grapple tackle.
Dearden has a word as he runs back onside and Luai gives it right back with a smile. Unfortunately the scoreboard isn't really giving him the leeway to do that sort of thing.
51' Spencer Leniu is back on and still blundering
Spencer Leniu came back on from his sin binning just after Reece Walsh's try and his first offering with ball in hand is knocking it on cold.
This feels like the sort of night you hook him. He's just lost it and when Leniu loses it, he often can't get it back.
Reece Walsh scores his second and apologises to Brian To'o
Harry Grant shakes off his finger concern and skips out of dummy half, going to a short left side to find Reece Walsh, who just spins out of a soft Stephen Crichton tackle to score.
He fends off Brian To'o on the way over and looks like he might have accidentally got him in the eye, so he makes sure to apologise. Respect to Walsh for that.
That was a great heads up play by Grant to identify the short side after Ronald Volkman rushed in as third man in a tackle on a standing Cameron Munster. That missing man created the overlap and Grant exploited it expertly.
46' A huge mistake from Samoa
Ata Mariota stands in a tackle on his 20m line and gets blindsided by Cam Murray, who knocks the ball loose.
I'm not sure that ball didn't go backwards from Mariota, but Adam Gee calls a knock-on.
WALSH GIFTS SAMOA A TRY!
The bomb is innocuous and Reece Walsh leaps for it uncontested, but he gets too far under it and drops it backwards.
Tom Trbojevic tries to clean up on the bounce, but the ball dances away from him and ends up in the hands of Stephen Crichton to fall over the line.
Well, that's a complete turnaround out of nowhere, and gravy for Samoa, still playing with 12 men on the field.
43' Harry Grant's busted his finger
The Kangaroos run it on the last and the ball ultimately ends up with Izack Tago, who's whacked by Harry Grant from behind.
Grant is down holding a finger and Jarome Luai gets up in his grill, which prompts a confrontation, but it's much ado about nothing.
41' Kangaroos kick off against 12 men
We've got 40 minutes left at the SFS. Can Samoa fire a shot?
First they'll have to make it through the first eight or nine minutes of this half without Spencer Leniu.
HALF-TIME: Kangaroos thumping Samoa 26-2
Well, this hasn't gone at all the way I expected.
Samoa has been error-riddled, ill-disciplined and pretty flimsy in defence.
The Kangaroos, meanwhile, look like the team their world ranking and star power would suggest.
"This is the best Australia's looked for the whole tournament. They've found form at the right time," Luke Lewis says on ABC Sport.
39' Spencer Leniu has been sent to the sin bin!
We're getting the bad and the ugly from Spencer Leniu tonight.
Errors in attack and overzealous defence giving way to six-agains and penalties.
And now he's left his team down to 12 men for abusing referee Adam Gee after the try.
"You walked past and gave me a spray. I won't cop it," Gee tells Leniu.
Bradman's the Best!
A ridiculous six again is given away by Spencer Leniu, giving the Kangaroos a full set deep in Samoan territory.
And Cameron Murray makes a bit of magic happen as he sprints out to the left, hits and spins and finds Jacob Preston, who again moves at such pace and perfectly sets up Bradman Best to score his first Test try.
36' We've got a bit of push and shove
Jack Bostock charges back into Jarome Luai and Jermaine McEwen.
Luai lifts the legs and McEwen takes him up top as Ata Mariota arrives.
It ends with a dangerous lifting tackle by Luai, with Bostock's head hitting the ground hard.
Reece Walsh is the first man to arrive to pull Luai away. And then everyone comes in. A couple of spot fires erupt, including Bostock flinging the ball at Sua Fa'alogo, but it's all relatively harmless.
Australia gets the penalty and everyone stays on the field.
Too good from the Kangaroos for Walsh to score!
Reece Walsh almost sends Kotoni Staggs over on the right, but after he's stopped the fullback finds a portal to pop up on the left and hits the ball at speed, going to the line with the ball in two hands, freezing Stephen Crichton and diving over to score a stunner.
Walsh celebrates with a backflip, and he's literally jumping out of his shoes. He nicks a security guard's chair to pop it back on.
I hope he put it back afterwards, otherwise that seccy is going to hurt his bum.
30' Samoa gets over, but it's taken off them
Jarome Luai's bomb is perfectly weighted for the arrival of Francis Manuleleua. He leaps with Reece Walsh and the Aussie fullback drops it straight into the hands of Stephen Crichton to score.
But there's a lot to check here.
I think Manuleleua is offside.
And he's touched it into Walsh in the contest.
Not a lot to like here as bunker official Chris Butler takes a close look.
Butler clears the offside. OK. But he finds the knock-on in the aerial contest.
Pity for Samoa, but the right call is made.
Tom Trbojevic is over this time!
Jermaine McEwen makes a phenomenal try-saving tackle on Newcastle teammate Bradman Best on the left side, but that gives Australia too much space to spin it the entire width of the field.
The bodies in motion and crisp passing create the extra numbers and Tom Trbojevic speeds in for a try this time.
The first tough kick for Cameron Munster, who is a famously bad kicker but slotted a few sideline looks last week, and he hooks it in the very stiff breeze.
Australia leads 16-2 with 14 minutes left in the first half.
24' Spencer Leniu's first offering is an error
The firebrand prop takes a charge and immediately knocks on in the Pat Carrigan tackle.
Kangaroos go straight back on the attack.
23' Try-saver by Sua Fa'alogo!
The bomb goes up and Cameron Murray goes up in front of Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, who just watches. The ball bounces and is batted back to the right flank where Tom Trbojevic sets sail for the sideline.
But he's tracked down by Sua Fa'alogo and shoved into touch at the last moment.
Oh. It turns out that was all unnecessary as Murray got a finger to it and knocked on.
22' Samoa finding its feet
Sua Fa'alogo looks elusive, Jermaine McEwen is back and looking powerful in attack.
They work upfield and the bomb is fumbled in the contest between the fullbacks.
It ends up with Liam Martin, but Samoa is penalised for off side anyway.
20' Huge stroke of luck for Australia
The short dropout after Jarome Luai's grubber doesn't quite go the 10 metres AND Tom Trbojevic drops it, but referee Adam Gee says it did go 10 and the drop went back.
The Kangaroos start their set right on their tryline.
18' Shot!
The often effective last-tackle surprise down the short side doesn't come off for Samoa, so Australia is trucking it off its 10m line.
Bradman Best barrels into the defence, but he's hit by Jazz Tevaga and blindsided and shortened up Junior Paulo to lose the ball.
JACOB PRESTON WITH ANOTHER AUSSIE TRY!
Australia's (nee Tonga's) Keaon Koloamatangi makes a brilliant jinking run towards the tryline, stopped only by a few defenders and mostly the goalpost. He manages to get the offload away to Harry Grant, who finds Cameron Munster.
Munster dances out to the left and turns it under for Jacob Preston, who does everything at speed and powers over the tryline.
That was really soft defence from Samoa and the try is converted by Cameron Munster.
Samoa looking shellshocked after just about everything has gone against them in these opening 15 minutes.
12' Huge play from Francis Molo
The Kangaroos spin it right and Tom Trbojevic pulls off a brilliant bootlaces pick up from a bad Reece Walsh pass.
He grubbers into the in-goal and it holds up, with prop Francis Molo the man who gets back to save a try.
And the short line dropout barely goes 5 metres, much less the necessary 10.
11' Samoa penalised and marched 10 metres
Connelly Lemuelu is penalised for raking the ball from Jack Bostock in a gang tackle. Then Jarome Luai kicks the ball away and referee Adam Gee marches them 10 metres.
That looked like a strip live, but not on replay. I bet they wish they still had their challenge, but alas.
TRY TIME! Tom Dearden just walks through them from the scrum!
All eyes are on Reece Walsh from the scrumbase play, but Tom Dearden dummies to the danger man and scythes in between Jazz Tevaga and Francis Manuleleua to go over almost untouched.
That's a huge blow struck early for the Kangaroos from the Crichton error, compounded by losing the captain's challenge.
7' Kangaroos aim up in defence
A couple of powerful charges from Kotoni Staggs and Tino Fa'asuamaleaui get the Kangaroos moving forward.
The kick is high but not long and eventually ends up with Sua Fa'alogo in a contest with Jack Bostock.
Stephen Crichton takes the next charge and knocks on!
Crichton tells Jarome Luai to challenge, but there's no strip and Samoa has lost its challenge early.
3' Samoa gets early advantage
Australia is pinged for offside and, as the bell rings for a set restart, Francis Manuleleua drops the ball cold, so it's a penalty for Samoa right in front.
They point to the sticks and Samoa will take the early 2-0 lead.
Interestingly, Jarome Luai has a chat with Ronald Volkman, who was kicking goals last week after replacing Chanel Harris-Tavita, and ultimately it's decided Stephen Crichton will be kicking.
He's got a heavily strapped left thigh, so I wonder will he only take the close shots and leave Volkman to try the tougher ones.
2' High shot by Tino Fa'asuamaleaui
Jermaine McEwen is furious as he's whacked high by Tino Fa'asuamaleaui, leaving the Knights back rower with a bloody nose.
McEwen is calling out the big Kangaroo, but he's off for an HIA.
Tino is on report.
1' Samoa kicks us off
And Tino Fa'asuamaleaui, who could have played for Samoa at this tournament, takes the first charge.
If this game is half as good as that pre-match, we're in for an all-time classic.
Teams face off in epic Samoan siva tau
Led by Junior Paulo, performed by 19 warriors and roared on by tens of thousands of fans.
And we've got ourselves a face-off.
This is as good as it gets.
Emotions running high
The tears are flowing for Samoa's national anthem, sung phenomenally by Deine Mariner's father, Lapi.
Ronald Volkman, Brian To'o, Junior Paulo ... the lot of them, just bawling their eyes out.
You love to see it.
Here come the teams
The rain is hammering down and the wind is howling, sending the countless Samoan flags billowing as the teams take to the field for the anthems.
But first, a moment's silence for Paul Langmack, who died this week aged 61.
Some yahoos are shouting out during the silence, prompting a bemused shake of the head from Cam Munster.
The rain is starting to fall
Who will that favour?
If it's a damp track, the Samoans' big boppers could have the best of it tonight.
It's an SFS sellout
By Amanda Shalala
Tonight is officially a sell out with more than 40,000 fans expected.
Most fans are already in their seats here, and they've just been treated to an energetic light show.
There's a huge contingent of Samoan fans in here, flags flying proudly all over the stadium, but there is green and gold sprinkled throughout the stadium too.
And based off the noise factor with the team line ups being announced, it feels like there are more (or at least louder) Samoans in the house!
