Australia's Kangaroos eased into the Four Nations rugby league final with a convincing 44-18 win over Samoa in Wollongong on Sunday.
The Kangaroos, in danger of missing their first major tournament final in 60 years after losing 30-12 to New Zealand in the opening game, will have another crack at the Kiwis in the decider in Wellington next Saturday.
The Australians posted eight tries to Samoa's three and were in control at halftime with a 28-6 lead.
Team mainstays Greg Inglis and Cooper Cronk both scored two tries, while skipper Cameron Smith landed four goals from six attempts.
The Samoans, who pushed England and New Zealand to the brink in their first two games, put in their worst defensive effort of the tournament to concede five tries in a sloppy first half.
Man--of-the-match Inglis was in outstanding form, scoring off a Corey Parker pass and then slicing through a weak Tim Lafai tackle to score his second try in the 26th minute.
Inglis has now scored 27 Test tries to be just one behind the late great Kangaroo centre Reg Gasnier.
Daly Cherry-Evans burnt off the Samoan defence in a 70-metre sprint to the line and young Bulldogs prop David Klemmer scored his first international try just minutes before the break.
Samoa outscored the Kangaroos for a time in the second half, getting back to 32-18 with 11 minutes to go. But the home side finished strongly with further tries to Josh Papalii and Josh Mansour to wrap up a conclusive victory.
Cherry-Evans finished off a lively match, kicking both conversions.
The Australians will now bid for their third Four Nations title against fierce trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand, who beat them 16-12 in the 2010 tournament in Brisbane.
Smith said the Kangaroos, fielding 11 rookies in their injury-hit 24-man squad, have gelled considerably in the wins over England and Samoa, since their first-up loss to New Zealand.
"We have grown a bit more patient as a football side over the last two weeks," Smith said.
"In that first match, given we had five debutants we went looking for cheap points when we were in an arm-wrestle match against the Kiwis.
"Last week against England and particularly this week at times, when we could have thrown the ball around a lot more we stuck to our game plan and the points came.
"But there is no doubt we need to improve on our performance this week against Samoa because we were comprehensively outplayed last time we met the Kiwis."
New Zealand will have home ground advantage for next weekend's final and remained unbeaten in this year's tournament with a 16-14 win to end England's hopes in Dunedin on Saturday.
Coach Matt Parish bemoaned a run of penalties which Samoa conceded early, allowing Australia to march upfield.
However Parish said Samoa's efforts over the last three weeks had given the Pacific islanders important impetus in international rugby league.
"We are obviously disappointed with the result but in the big picture we have made big inroads," he said.