Ireland 40 Samoa 9

Ireland won a scrappy encounter against Samoa at the Aviva Stadium by 40 points to 9.

Tries from Peter O'Mahony, Sean O'Brien, Fergus McFadden and two for debutant David Kearney, together with an excellent kicking display from Ulster's Paddy Jackson, got the Guinness Series and the Joe Schmidt era off to a winning start

Peter O'Mahony got the only try of the first period when he finished off a superb maul after great work from Chris Henry.

Jackson and Pisi exchanged penalties as Ireland went in 14-6 at half time.

Ireland started the second half with a well worked try. Jackson kicked cleverly into space, Brian O'Driscoll flicked a class pass through his legs and Sean O'Brien barreled over.

Samoa suffered a series of injuries and the more the game wore on, the better Ireland became.

Dave Kearney got a try in the corner, assisted by a pass from his brother Rob.

Fergus McFadden then got on the scoresheet with a try of his own, before Dave Kearney rounded off the win with his second score of the match.

Jackson missed that conversion, but he was successful with three penalties and three conversions in total.

Next up for Ireland is Australia at the Aviva Stadium next Saturday evening.