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.
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.
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.
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.
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: 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: Tomkins, Young, Watkins, Farnworth, Makinson, Welsby, Williams, Burgess, McIlorum, Hill, Whitehead, Bateman, Radley
Replacements: Knowles, Thompson, Cooper, McMeeken
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
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