Rugby League World Cup: Samoa's semi-final win creates Canberra Raiders history

They're not only the first tier-two team to make the Rugby League World Cup final, but it will be the first time two Raiders players will face off in the decider as well.

It's a remarkable statistic given the world-class players to have played for the Green Machine - the likes of Ricky Stuart, Laurie Daley, Ruben Wiki, Elliott Whitehead and Josh Papalii.

But if both Australia and Samoa line up as expected in the final at Manchester next Sunday (AEDT), then Jack Wighton will be staring down Papalii in the pregame Siva Tau - Samoa's traditional war cry.

Samoa sent shockwaves through the rugby league world with its 27-26 golden point victory over England on Sunday - turning around a massive 54-point loss to the host nation in the tournament opener.

It's set up a mouthwatering final, pitting favourites Australia against a raft of players who opted to represent their Samoan heritage instead of the Kangaroos.

Papalii, Jarome Luai, Stephen Crichton and Brian To'o all could have been part of the Kangaroos squad for this World Cup.

Former Raiders prop Sia Soliola, who represented Samoa at the 2013 World Cup, was "proud as punch" of the team - compounded by the fact he knew some of them.

"That's pretty cool. That's something to note down for our trivia," he said upon hearing of the historic Raiders feat.

"Jack played an amazing game the other night ... it's no surprise the way he's playing, setting up that try. He's just an amazing athlete."

Soliola has been flooded with videos from Samoan communities around the world celebrating the historic win over England with mini parades and the like.

He said the social media age meant this Samoan squad would know exactly how big the wave of support they were riding into the final was.

Soliola loved seeing Anthony Milford back playing for Samoa after the pair played together in 2013.

But he admitted he was sceptical at first when he saw Papalii coming off the bench.

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"Yeah [he's been] pretty good. I was scratching my head at first when he started coming off the bench, but it was a great play by [Samoa coach Matt Parish] and the coaching staff," Soliola said.

"Royce Hunt and Oregon Kaufusi are laying a really good platform there at the start.

"Junior [Paulo] being Junior is really leading from the front and everyone is falling in behind them."

Soliola did feel for his old Raiders teammate Elliott Whitehead, who starred for England in the narrow loss.

"He's had a really good campaign. He was awesome in that first match against Samoa and again today," he said.

"He was really unfortunate to be on the losing side ... someone had to go down, but I'm pretty happy it wasn't Samoa."

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