Golden Point Thriller Sees Suaali'i and Samoa into World Cup Final

Samoa have stunned host nation England to book their place in the 2021 Rugby League World Cup Final with a Stephen Crichton field goal in Golden Point securing a thrilling 27-26 win.

With the scores locked at 20-20, Crichton looked to have secured the result for Matt Parish's side with an intercept try six minutes from full-time, only for England halfback George Williams to return serve and send Herbie Farnworth over for his second try of the game with a stunning long-range effort.

After Tommy Makinson calmly slotted the conversion from out wide to send the match into Golden Point, Crichton would again be the star of the show, stepping up from 30 metres out to land the match-winning play for the Pacific nation.

Samoa — who came into the tournament ranked as the eighth nation in the world — will now take on Australia next Sunday in their first World Cup Final.

Forced to defend their own line early after putting the opening kickoff of the match out on the full, it was Samoa who took a surprise lead after five minutes with Jarome Luai finding Tim Lafai on the left edge, who showed sharp awareness to get on the outside of club teammate Kallum Watkins and outpace the centre to the line.

Behind for the first time all tournament, England would almost immediately find themselves back on the attack when Junior Paulo — who successfully contested a judiciary charge from the quarter-final to take part in the semi-final — again found himself in hot water following a lifting tackle on Thomas Burgess.

With Paulo in the sin bin, plus Fa'amanu Brown and Oregon Kaufusi both off the field for head injury assessments, England looked to have returned serve through Watkins, only for video review official Adam Gee to deny the try after replays showed Lafai had somehow stopped his opposite number from grounding the ball.

The hosts would eventually get their breakthrough shortly after Paulo returned, however, with former Raiders teammates George Williams and Elliott Whitehead combining to put England in front after 25 minutes.

Watkins' unhappy first half continued when Samoa hit back in the 31st minute; Ligi Sao taking advantage of some lazy marker work from the Three Lions to outpace Watkins down the left edge and dummy his way over to score, giving Matt Parrish's side a deserved 10-6 lead as the teams hit the half-time sheds.

The talented England centre wouldn't have to wait long to make amends for his opening half woes — opening the second half with a huge tackle on Lafai to force an error and gift John Bateman a try under the posts which restored the hosts' lead.

It was then Jarome Luai's time to take charge, with the Samoan playmaker producing two moments of magic in the space of eight minutes to push the Pacific powerhouse out to a 20-12 lead with 20 minutes remaining.

The first finished in arguably the try of the tournament — a stepping, jinking run that featured a no-look overhead offload from Junior Paulo and a volleyball pass from Luai for Stephen Crichton to score — while the second, a sharp step back inside of an on-rushing Dominic Young, sent Lafai over for his second try of the game.

The result was suddenly commanding advantage for Samoa, who led beyond a converted try heading into the final quarter of the match.

Befitting for contest, there were more twists to come, with Herbie Farnworth crossing to pull the hosts within two before a Tommy Makinson penalty goal levelled the scores once again — only for Crichton to pick Radley's pass off and race away.

Williams and Farnworth combined again to send the game into Golden Point, but there would be no denying Samoa and Crichton, with the Panthers centre stepping up to kick his team into their first ever World Cup Final.