Ireland would've beaten Samoa pretty easily and had a crack against Aus/NZL/Eng if given the chance. Just a shame about the draw and the fact that some of the Euro teams sent shithouse understrength squads, although to be honest the strength of all the tier 2 nations seems to vary greatly depending on what hemisphere the comp is in, remember Tonga didn't make it out of their group last time.
Really it's all about how many full time pros are in the squad and getting a couple of star players in the right positions who can make the difference. Scotland drew with NZ last year when they got their best team out, I reckon even France could have a crack if they ever fielded a full strength team.