Last Wednesday night's World Cup clash between Samoa and Ireland at Parramatta Stadium was one of the best I've been to.

Samoa were the hot favourites to win the match and top their pool against the Irish, who were ranked ninth out of 10 teams leading into the tournament.

The Samoans had a wealth of NRL experience in the squad, but former Wests Tiger Pat Richards was one of the few players with NRL experience in Ireland's line-up.

Very few fans tipped Ireland to cause one of the biggest World Cup boilovers and progress to the semi-final qualifier, which they played against Fiji last night.

A win against Fiji will see Ireland take on Australia for a place in the final next Sunday.

If I had a choice between watching Australia thrash the second best and third best teams in the world or see what I saw at Parramatta Stadium last week, I'd choose the latter a game that went from one end of the field to the other and could have been won by either team up until late in the match. The half-filled stadium showed their appreciation for the display and made as much noise as you would hear from a capacity crowd.

Heading home, you'd think that it was Samoa who won by the way their fans tooted car horns and waved flags with pride.

The only lowlight of the night came from the few Samoan fans running onto the field one of them an idiot who jumped the fence during the match and assaulted a match official as he tried to tackle the referee.

Police arrested and charged three men and cautioned a youth.

In other World Cup news, the Australians will train and hold a skills clinic at Patrician Brothers Blacktown this morning.

The best wheelchair rugby league players in the world are also in the spotlight this week.

Teams from France, England and Australia and a Barbarian team will take part in their own World Cup with matches played at Mt Druitt's Betts Stadium, the Sydney Academy of Sport and Liverpool's Whitlam Centre. The final will be held at Betts Stadium next Monday..