1 TOM COURTHe was penalised twice at the first couple of scrums, but that might be partially attributable a really poor officiating display. Carried and tackled to conspicuous effect and righted the Irish scrum when moved to tighthead prop. 6/10
15 LUKE FITZGERALD
Offered glimpses of his superb counter-attacking pedigree; his team-mates must run more intelligent lines in support. Lost a contested high ball and missed one tackle, but far more positives to his display.
4 DONNCHA O’CALLAGHAN
His hard work was more conspicuous in this match and he seemed to be omnipresent in stopping the Samoans while also initiating one decent kick-and-chase that pre-empted the penalty that led to the Irish try.
6/10
7 SEÁN O’BRIEN
No one can fault the amount of perspiration he expended but things just didn’t fall well for him; his discipline at ruck time needs to improve and he must choose his physical battles more carefully.
4/10
2 SEÁN CRONIN
He’ll be very pleased with his lineout throwing and also with some of his work around the pitch. Slipped off one or two tackles. He needs to be put in space rather than trying to run over players.
5/10
14 TOMMY BOWE
It wasn’t really an afternoon for wingers in an attacking capacity because of the paucity of ball, quality or otherwise. Defensively sound, he made one finely-judged tackle on Alesana Tuilagi.
5/10
10 RONAN O’GARA
He took the try well and kicked his goals in a competent display, but for the second week in succession Ireland looked a bit off-kilter when trying to exploit the wider channels: two kicks blocked down.
5/10
11 ANDREW TRIMBLE
It was a hard-working afternoon for the winger who took one brave catch, chased ball and put in some thumping tackles. Dropped a couple of passes but the delivery was poor.
5/10
5 DEVIN TONER
His maturing as a player was evident in the way he handled his debut. Will face tougher defensive lineouts but called and won with aplomb, managing to nick a couple; also carried aggressively.
6/10
12 PADDY WALLACE
It was a tough outing as he never got a chance to demonstrate his creativity in possession. He was lulled out of alignment for the Samoan try and made one or two other errors.
4/10
13 BRIAN O’DRISCOLL
One vintage, slaloming run and then helped the forwards sustain the momentum for Jamie Heaslip’s try with a hard-yards carry. Precious little ball going forward though for the second week in succession.
5/10
3 JOHN HAYES
Even allowing for a diminution in intensity at scrum time later in the game, it was noticeable how the frontrow changes empowered the Irish scrum. Worked hard on the fringes in a defensive capacity.
4/10
8 JAMIE HEASLIP
Scored his fifth international try, was a safe pair of hands at the back of the lineout and for the second week in succession got through a huge amount of work.
6/10
9 PETER STRINGER
A hive of industry throughout, he tried to whip ball away with his customary speed, but occasionally had to do more digging than he should to extricate it; one poor box kick.
5/10
6 DENIS LEAMY
It’s only when reviewing the game that it’s possible to fully appreciate the volume of work he got through; it was a tough afternoon to be trying to make the hard yards but the Munster man delivered.
6/10
