WALES won’t be taking Samoa lightly in Friday night’s clash at the Millennium Stadium, with Shane Williams predicting a real cracker.

The Pacific islanders have picked a strong squad for their European autumn tour, which sees them play Wales, France and Italy.

London Irish trio of Sailosi Tagicakibau, Seilala Mapusua and George Stowers head ten players who make their living in England’s Guinness Premiership.

Anyone expecting a cake-walk should bear in mind Wales’ painful track record against Samoa, which shows three wins and three losses in their six head-to-heads.

Those three defeats consist of two deeply humiliating home losses in the 1991 and 1999 World Cups and a 34-9 thrashing in Apia in 1994.

They also gave England a real run for their money in the 2003 and 2007 World Cups and are certainly no mugs.

With their trademark bone-crunching big hits and devastating counter-attacks, they are a real handful.

The IRB International Player of the Year, it seems, is quite right to talk Samoa up and give them the respect they deserve.

And Williams hopes to play against the side he scored two tries against when Wales played them last nine years ago in a 50-6 victory at Cardiff.

The Ospreys winger, 32, is eager to add to his 66 caps and his record-breaking 46 tries for Wales.

He said: “I’m hoping to play on Friday night, whether or not I will I really don’t know.

“But I’m really looking forward to the match. It’s going to be a great game.

“We need to play well to beat a very good Samoan side.

“They’ve got a very strong squad with a lot of players from the Guinness Premiership.

“We know it’s going to be very physical and we’ll have to prepare well this week.

“People talk about their defence, but they’ve got great attacking players as well.

“We need to win our next three games (against Samoa, Argentina and Australia) and we are more than capable of doing it. But it’s not going to be easy on Friday.”