World Cup semi-final brings out best and worst of Walsh

Samoa were beaten 30-10 by Australia in the World Cup semi-final, suffering a second consecutive World Cup loss to the same opponent. The two teams have now faced each other six times, with Australia winning on every occasion.

The Samoan side began the match with an ultra‑aggressive Siva Tau war dance that saw players get close to Australian opponents, even forehead to forehead. They later complained about two disallowed tries – one by Crichton in the first half and another by Hamiso Tabuai‑Fidow with ten minutes remaining after contact between Manuleleua and Liam Martin was judged illegal. Australian referee Adam Gee sin‑binned Spencer Leniu for dissent shortly before half‑time. Samoan coach Ben Gardiner answered questions on the officiating, stating "You guys saw the game. You report on it," and later elaborated: "I'm not quite sure.

On the back of some of the penalties that were given, we just didn't react very well. There was one thing into another and then a try. It made it difficult to be able to fight back from that.

And then to be down by 18 points, 20 points at half-time, to chase back from that... I thought we did well in the second half to fight back.

But then again, we scored a try and gave up another one straight away. We bounced off too many tackles in that early period, missed too many tackles in the game in general.

That had nothing to do with the emotion. That's a Test match, that's what you do. It's physical, there's push and shove, stand your ground."