Samoa have crushed the challenge of Pacific rivals Japan in a lively but abrasive encounter in Wrexham.

The lightweight Japanese eventually wilted under the bone-crunching tackling and aggressive running of the Samoans, despite having the better of the early exchanges.

The reigning Pacific Rim champions, fielding five New Zealanders and a Fijian, were cut open and smashed apart by the mighty Va'aiga Tuigamala and winger Brian Lima, with Samoa scoring five tries - two coming in stoppage time at the end of the match.

Slippery conditions

Japan won the last time these two nations met, but this was a different Samoan outfit, boasting an overwhelming number of New Zealand-based heavyweights.

Keiji Hirose clears Japan' lines

Their first try came with an attacking move up the left of the pitch, spearheaded by centre To'o Vaega, who delivered to Lima on an unstoppable charge to the try line.

Japan barely had time to pick themselves up before the blue tidal wave was back, winger Afato So'oalo hacking through to Andrew McCormick, who fumbled in the slippery conditions.

The ball came out to fullback Silao Leaega for the touchdown from 15m and the halftime scores stood at 18-6.

The second half was more of the same and while the conditions brightened the Japanese seemed increasingly bruised and dazed by the sheer physicality of the opposition.

Yellow cards

They managed a sustained period of pressure for the first 15 minutes of the second half, but could only gather three points from a penalty.

Samoa weathered the storm and struck back almost at will as Stephen Bachop and Tuigamala combined to set So'oalo free for his first.

Two more strikes came in injury time with free, open runs upfield ending in a second for So'oalo and just reward with another for the hard-tackling Lima on 82 minutes.

For the second time, a World Cup match was marred by fighting, as Japan's Jamie Josephs and Samoa's Craig Glendinning - both New Zealanders - were yellow-carded for a brawl.

And the superbly industrious Samoan No 8 Pat Lam was denied a try after play was brought back for a punch thrown by his prop Brendan Reidy earlier in the move.

Teams:

Samoa:Silao Leaega, Afato So'oalo, To'o Vaega, Va'aiga Tuigamala, Brian Lima; Stephen Bachop, Steven So'oialo; Pat Lam (captain), Craig Glendinning, Junior Paramore, Lama Tone, Sene Ta'ala, Robbie Ale, Trevor Leota, Brendan Reidy

Japan - Tsutomu Matsuda; Daisuke Ohata, Andrew McCormick (captain), Yukio Motoki, Terunori Masuho; Keiji Hirose, Graeme Bachop; Jamie Joseph, Greg Smith, Yasunori Watanabe, Naoya Okubo, Rob Gordon, Kohei Oguchi, Masahiro Kunda, Shin Hasegawa.