Thank you very much for joining me for a dramatic day in north London. Here is Aaron Bower’s match report.
What a moment for Samoa.
🗣️ "What a moment for rugby league!"
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) November 12, 2022
Stephen Crichton makes history! ✅
🇼🇸 Samoa are into their first men's Rugby League World Cup!
An agonising end for England.
📺 Watch #RLWC2021 on @BBCOne and @BBCiPlayer!#BBCRL pic.twitter.com/GJqeMyiUWt
Shaun Wane and the players will be soul searching after that underwhelming performance. It was all a touch flat for most of the 80 minutes, compounded by some tedious errors to help Samoa win.
Sam Tomkins: “We were the second best team.
“The amount of pressure we put ourselves under by making sloppy errors and not defending like we have for the past five weeks.
“They are a good side with a lot of good players – give them an opportunity and they will score.”
Shaun Wane: “Not good enough. The best team won.
“I was never happy in our game, we were below our standards. There is some soul searching going on from the staff. I don’t doubt the players’ effort but we weren’t good enough today.
“Samoa did the right things at the right time – and we didn’t.”
It is fair to say, he is gutted.
BBC pundit Willie Poching is very emotional. A lovely moment for him and Samoa.
Jarome Luai: “I don’t think anyone gave us a chance tonight but the belief in the squad is very strong.
“Not many calls went our way tonight but our scramble and brotherhood helped.
“We are going to enjoy this moment and see what we can do next week.”
What a moment for Samoa. Crichton kept his nerve before being completely mobbed by his teammates. A cruel blow for England but really they set their own downfall at the Emirates. They were not at their best and gave Samoa two chances to win it.
FULL-TIME: ENGLAND 26-27 SAMOA
SAMOA ARE IN THE FINAL! A forward pass from Tomkins gifts Samoa another set of six and a chance at a drop goal. It is a classic bit of going down the middle to set up the position. It gets sent back to Crichton who keeps his calm and sends the drop goal over for the golden point.
Updated
82 mins: England are doing as you would expect to get into the position for a drop goal but the ball runs free and Samoa pick it up. They run it down the middle to set up the drop goal. It goes back to Milford but England sprint out and Whitehead throws himself at the Samoan’s boot to charge it down. This is savage.
Extra time
Next score wins! England receive it from kick off.
The players look tired and are some treatment from the physios.
It is golden point extra time!
Full-time: England 26-26 Samoa
We go to extra time!
TRY! England 26-26 Samoa (Farnworth, 78)
DRAMA! Samoa are just trying to gain ground rather than actually score. The key is important and it is lands with Makinson just in front of the try line. England make it to their own 10 on the third tackle. Williams breaks through and sends the ball out to Farnworth to sprint into space and get over the line. A big kick for Makinson from the left of the posts … he gets it!
Updated
76 mins: England need to give it everything now to take this match to extra-time. They go with a short kick-off and Young gets that to palm the ball back. They reach the 20 metre line on the third. Radley gets within five on the fifth. They are desperate to keep it alive but the result is the ball going a long way backwards as they panic.
TRY! England 20-26 Samoa (Crichton, 73)
Burgess bangs into a couple of defenders, as does Williams but it all goes wrong straight after. Radley looks to send a pass with an overload on the left but Crichton reads it, intercepts and runs half the length of the pitch before sliding over. What a moment for Samoa. Crichton gets the two.
Updated
72 mins: To’o catches Tomkins kick on the last inside the 10 but England are straight into the Samoans, giving up nothing to the blue shirts. Samoa make it to the halfway line from where Milford sends a kick to Makinson, who runs across the line to make a few metres of ground.
70 mins: England have the momentum with them at the moment. Can they utilise it? Will Samoa bounce back due to the grievance they feel after that penalty?
England’s end a set of six with a big kick and follow it up with two huge tackles from Radley. England are up for this now and giving up no ground to Samoa.
PENALTY: England 20-20 Samoa (Makinson, 68)
ALL LEVEL! Tomkins puts up a kick, Suaali’i is underneath it but a penalty is called for Paulo taking out the England captain off the ball. It goes to a captains review but the video referee agrees with the on field decision. England take the chance to kick from 10 metres. Makinson makes no mistake.
66 mins: As previously mentioned, Samoa look a little tired. England are backed by an increasingly raucous crowd. This should be a fun final 14 minutes.
TRY! England 18-20 Samoa (Farnworth, 64)
Williams thinks he has broken the line but fingertips hold him back. Welsby kicks for the corner, it looks to hit the whitewash and bounces back for Bateman to ground but it is ruled out. Instead we go back to an earlier penalty for offside. We go back to England starting a set of six from the 20 metre line. England are driving at this tired defence with power. Farnworth gets the ball on the left and bulldozes through a line of three men in blue to touch down. Makinson does the rest. GAME ON!
Updated
62 mins: Samoa lose the ball in the tackle, England pick it up, allowing Young to race for the line from 40 metres but a plethora of blue shirts drag him down. Williams sends an early grubber through but Whitehead is not a footballer and he can’t control it, resulting in To’o grabbing hold in the in goal area.
61 mins: England are showing far more intent after going eight points behind. They are quick at the play of the ball. The kick on the the play final tackle goes dead.
Away from that, however, Tomkins and a few Samoans are going at it. Luai has a word with Tomkins, who gives him a friendly tap on the head, resulting in the Samoan losing it and chasing him down for a push and shove. The referee gets involved and tells them both to be less childish.
Updated
60 mins: Samoa are on the front foot and England really need to react but they are completely out of this game. That thrashing at St James’ Park is certainly a long way away at this stage.
TRY! England 12-20 Samoa (Lafai, 57)
Samoa think they can kick a penalty for goal but it is a differential, meaning they cannot. It is a good job they have to have a set of six instead. They move the ball from left to right, and vice versa. Young misses a tackle on Luai, allowing him to play in Lafai to cross the whitewash. Once again, Wane is furious. Crichton drifts wide.
Updated
56 mins: Papali’i almost breaks the line but is just about held up. The kick on the final tackle goes towards Young who allows the ball to slip between his fingers, much to Wane’s chagrin, despite being under no pressure. The England head coach is furious.
54 mins: Samoa get inside the 10 on the final tackle but the kick from Milford is seized upon by Tomkins just in front of his own line.
52 mins: You’d think England would have been buoyed by their own try but the wind might have been taken out of their sails. Samoan have come back at the them with great intensity and England really need to up their game if they are to win here.
TRY! England 12-16 Samoa (Crichton, 49)
Suaali’i drives at Farnworth and gets the better of the England player, only for Whitehead to complete the tackle. Samoa move the ball quickly along the line and look to have a good chance but England recover. Luai sidesteps a couple of players before sending the ball to Paulo who offloads from the floor. There are some quick passes and Crichton collects to go over. What a try. The try scorer gets the extras.
TRY! England 12-10 Samoa (Bateman, 45)
England get inside the 10 and Cooper drives for the line but is held up under the posts. Whitehead tries to break the line but is taken down. The kick goes up on the final tackle and it looks an easy claim for Lafai but he drops it under pressure from Watkins, allowing Bateman to sweep in and touch down. Makinson pings the kick over.
Updated
44 mins: Scrappy stuff from England once again. Luckily for them To’o fails to take the kick on the final tackle and England get to start again.
42 mins: Samoa are gifted a penalty at the halfway line. They get within a few minutes of the line but Suaali’i is held up. On the final tackle they go for a kick but it achieves little, although they keep hold of the ball. They have an overload on the right but Makinson pounces when the ball goes loose.
Second half
Here we go again!
There are some decent sections without many people in inside the Emirates, which is a shame. The teams are on their way back.
Sam Tomkins: “We have put ourselves under some unnecessary pressure. We had some good positions but didn’t do much with it.
“We need to get back to how we’ve been playing for the past five weeks. This is easily our worst performance.”
Half time: England 6-10 Samoa
Samoa have been impressive with ball in hand and are making a slightly below par England work incredibly hard. England will be furious with themselves for failing to score a point during the 10-minute spell when they had a man advantage.
38 mins: Luai throws to Su’a, who thinks he is through but a fantastic tackle stops him in his tracks. Samoa aim a kick through but Tomkins reads it and ensures it goes beyond the dead ball line. England will be the more eager to get to half time with the scores the same.
36 mins: Bateman fails to catch a pass but it is adjudged the ball has gone backwards. A kick goes up to the corner for England to chase but Suaali’i backs the bounce of the ball, and thankfully for the Samoa is bounces out of play. A risky tactic that pays off.
34 mins: Samoa are really pounding through the middle against England and they tournament hosts are struggling to cope with it.
TRY! England 6-10 Samoa (Sao, 31)
Radley puts in a big hit on Suaali’i as part of Samoa’s plan to go straight down the middle. The ball goes out to the left where Sao does Watkins with a dummy and takes advantage of the gap and dives over the line. Crichton adds the extras from the left touchline.
30 mins: It is all happening in the corner. A big kick goes up which Samoa fail to do with and it looks like Young will collect and run it over the line but he kicks it straight out. England get a penalty for a shoulder off the ball on Young, putting England in a great position but they fail to make anything of it.
28 mins: Thompson comes on and immediately loses his boot in a tackle. Welcome to the game.
Samoa put together an decent set of six that concludes with a looping kick from Milford that Tomkins gobbles up.
Brown has failed his HIA assessment, while Kaufusi is yet to complete his.
TRY! England 6-4 Samoa (Whitehead, 25)
There is no doubt about this one. It is fantastic work from Williams who breaks through two Samoans thanks to a clever dummy before offloading to Whitehead to do the rest. Makinson adds the extra points.
Updated
24 mins: Makinson again takes a long kick inside his own 10 and decides to run it across the line but defeats a few outstretched hands to make a few metres, even if it took him to run 50 metres sideways to make it.
22 mins: I think we can rule out England scoring 60 points today. Tomkins kicks through for Farnworth to chase but the ball bounces off him and Samoa collect it.
Paulo is back on with England still pointless. He will be a relieved man.
20 mins: NO TRY! England take their first tackle on the 10 metre line. The ball is worked out to the right where Watkins is waiting, he drives for the line with Lafai holding onto him, he goes over but loses control of the ball. You cannot do that at this level.
18 mins: Makinson takes a great catch on the Samoan final tackle but it is very much inside his own 20. England complete their set of six with a good kick and chase but Suaali’i still manages to take control.
16 mins: Makinson escapes the a tackle but he leaves Brown on the deck after clashing heads with a teammate. He looks to be in a bad way. He is lifted to his feet and will need a Head Injury Assessment.
Kaufusi also has to go off, too, for a HIA. This is a tricky stage for Samoa.
14 mins: A huge 10 minutes for England here. They need to get some points on the board while they have the one-man advantage. England get another penalty and go for the try but Williams sends an early pass wide but it is a looping effort that is intercepted.
12 mins: Samoa are slowing England down at the play of the ball. They speed things up with a few quick offloads in succession until Williams is tackled out of play. Turns out Samoan have knocked on and England get it back.
Penalty to England after Paulo puts down Burgess on his neck, resulting in Paulo being sin binned for 10 minutes.
10 mins: Young catches a high kick inside his own 10, making it a tough set of six for England. The kick on the fifth from Tomkins is from deep and Samoa snaffle it up, allowing them plenty of room to bring it back up field without pressure.
Samoa are putting their bodies on the line in attack and defence.
8 mins: England are behind for the first time in the World Cup. They will want to get back at Samoa quickly.
TRY! England 0-4 Samoa (Lafai, 6)
What a start for Samoa! They get a second set of six on the halfway line. Suaali’i finds a gap at the 20 metre line and is taken down. On the next tackle, Luai finds Lafai who does Watkins for speed and grounds the ball. Crichton misses his kick.
Updated
4 mins: Milford sends a kick out on the full, too. Samoa’s kicking game looks a little off.
England complete a set of six with a high Williams kick that is caught by Suaali’I inside his own 10.
2 mins: The kick-off is sent straight out of play, allowing England to take the ball back up to the halfway. A bad start for Samoa.
Williams looked set to go over but a last-ditch tackle prevents him. The next tackle sees a kick go up, Makinson goes to collect it in the corner but cannot take control of the ball and it bounces out of play. A lively start.
Kick-off
Here we go!
The Samoan anthem is sung a capella and it gets an emotional reaction in the stands.
The sun is out in north London but the crowd looks impressively sparse at the moment. Hopefully they are all waiting on the concourse.
Updated
The teams are in the tunnel …
Shaun Wane: “They were under done [in the opening game], that’s no doubt about that. They are better than they showed that day. We have improved as well.
“They have talked all week about how physical they will be. We are English and we won’t back down.”
A Rugby League World Cup camp sounds fun.
“Really looking forward to today’s game,” says Richard Wilson. “Fingers crossed we get the dream final I was hoping for when I booked my tickets for Old Trafford with 200 days to go.
“I think this is England’s strongest 17 on paper and they will hopefully take the battle to Samoa up front. Having said that, I’ve been impressed by England’s strength across the pitch this tournament but I don’t think they’ve put in a full 80 minute performance.”
“Could they be peaking in time for next week?!”
They will certainly need to be with Australia awaiting them.
When I was a teenager and called up to play for Salford, you’d have hoped there would be a few of those players in the England squad today. Alas, absolutely none of them made it professionally and I was by far the worst.
A nice feature on Victor Radley is being shown on the BBC where they talk through his upbringing in Australia, his work in the building trade and his Yorkshire dad.
Easy? I don’t think so.
England have averaged 60 points a game in this tournament. That is a sign of how well they are doing and what Samoa are up against.
Aaron Bower takes a look at what we can expect from this semi.
Samoa team
Samoa: Suaali’i, To’o, Crichton, Lafai, May, Luai, Milford, Hunt, Brown, Paulo, Sao, Su’a, Kaufusi
Replacements: Harris-Tavita, Papali’i, Leniu, Tuilagi
Can this semi-final compete with last night’s?
England team
England: Tomkins, Young, Watkins, Farnworth, Makinson, Welsby, Williams, Burgess, McIlorum, Hill, Whitehead, Bateman, Radley
Replacements: Knowles, Thompson, Cooper, McMeeken
Preamble
Here we are, back where it all began: England are playing Samoa at a Premier League football ground. On that day, at the start of the tournament, England racked up an impressive 60-6 triumph against one of the favourites to lay their down a marker.
Samoa have since shown why some tipped them to go a long way with some impressive displays. They edged out Tonga in the quarter finals 20-18 and they know they will have to be better if they are to gain revenge against England.
Shaun Wane’s side have been unstoppable thus far. Papua New Guinea were brushed aside in their first knockout match after a breezy group stage. The challenge for England is to maintain the momentum they have collected. Apart from a brief lack of discipline against France, the standard of performances from England have been of the highest calibre.
Awaiting the victors of today’s game is Australia after their 16-14 triumph over rivals New Zealand at Elland Road last night. That game is being described as one of the greatest rugby league matches in history, so hopefully we will see more of the same.
It should be a cracking encounter at the Emirates!
Kick-off: 2.3opm GMT
