Ireland 47 Samoa 5: Sexton back to his best as Aki sent off and Irish make quarters but it’s down to Typhoon Hagibis to say if they play New Zealand or South Africa
IRELAND raced in seven tries past a hapless Samoan side.
But they are at the mercy of mother nature to determine whether they face New Zealand or South Africa in the quarter-finals.
It all depends of whether Scotland play Japan on Sunday.
Johnny Sexton was back to his best with two tries of his own — but Bundee Aki's red card rules him out of the huge last-eight match.
He collided with Ulupano Suteni's head with his shoulder on the half-hour mark and there was no mitigating circumstances for the referee to downgrade it to yellow after consulting the TMO.
But the sharpness of Sexton, Conor Murray and in particular Jordan Larmour and Keith Earls caught the eye.
Ireland are not showing the sort of form that thrusted them to world No1 a year ago after they beat the All Blacks in Dublin.
Yet there are signs players who had a dip in form last year are back in form, especially Sexton, Murray, CJ Stander and Rory Best.
Rob Kearney and Peter O'Mahony were dropped from the starting XV in favour of Larmour and Tadgh Beirne.
And barring Aki, Schmidt should be able to field a full-strength 23 against either the Springboks or the All Blacks.
They were three tries to the good when Aki saw red, thanks to skipper Best, Tadgh Furlong and Sexton.
And they rolled their sleeves up as Sexton showed great support running to bag the bonus point just before half time.
Jack Lam had touched down for the Pacific Islanders just before the red card, but it was a fly in the ointment for the Irish.
Man of the match Larmour and Stander ran in two more tries, the second coming after an incredible spell of green-shirted pressure.
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And replacement Andrew Conway touched down from a lovely Joey Carberry grubber bamboozled the Samoan back three.
Job done for the Irish, who will hope for South Africa in that quarter-final.
They might also say a prayer for the inhabitants of Japan, who are being battered with the worst typhoon for 60 years.
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