Wales and Lebanon will both aim to quickly put heart-breaking results behind them as they seek to keep alive their hopes of reaching the 2008 World Cup in tomorrow's repechage semi-finals at Widnes.

Neither side suffered defeat last weekend but Wales' 18-16 win over Scotland was not quite enough to earn them automatic qualification while Lebanon's 16-16 draw with Ireland maintained their unbeaten record but condemned them to the runners-up spot in their group.

Wales were semi-finalists in both 1995 and 2000 but defeat tomorrow would finally end their World Cup dreams while victory would put them into next Wednesday's repechage final at Featherstone against either Samoa or the United States, whose semi-final will be staged as a curtain-raiser at the Halton Stadium tomorrow.

"I've never seen a Welsh dressing room that was so low after a game," said Wales assistant coach Kevin Ellis. "We felt we let ourselves down and it was our mistakes that cost us automatic qualification.

"We just have to learn from that game and we need to get all the negativity out of us and think of the positives, which are that we won the game and we're still unbeaten this year.

"That's what we need to instil into the lads - that we're unbeaten and we need to be still unbeaten after the Lebanon match."

Wales' meeting with Lebanon will be their first since the 2000 World Cup when they won 24-22 thanks largely to Iestyn Harris, who was man of the match after scoring two tries and creating the other three.

Harris and captain Lee Briers, who were reunited in Glasgow at the weekend for the first time since 2000, are the only survivors from the game in Llanelli but Briers remains a major doubt after damaging his ankle against the Scots.

Wales Rugby League chairman Mark Rowley said: "Lee took a fierce blow to the shins and, at first, we thought that he had broken his leg.

"But it has turned out to be severe bruising and he's been receiving treatment in Warrington ever since."

Lebanon will be equally determined to reach Australia, especially as the bulk of their team are based in Sydney.

"It was pretty shattering last week," admitted prop Ray Moujali. "We really wanted to get through, especially leading by two points with a few minutes to go.

"We're very determined. We really want to get to the World Cup. There is a huge Lebanese population in Sydney and it would be great for the game if we were there."

Samoa, the favourites to clinch the 10th spot in the main draw, are able to boast a quartet of former New Zealand Test stars in their team to face the United States.

Nigel Vagana, who retired from the Kiwis after the 2006 Tri-Nations final, will captain a side that includes the Puleta brothers, Frank and Tony, and a wealth of Super League experience in Ali Lauitiiti (Leeds), Harrison Hansen (Wigan), Andreas Baeur (Hull KR), Hutch Maiava (Hull) and Philip Leulua (Salford).

Team manager Peter Lavea said: "We're here to take that qualification place, it's really important to us.

"We're the sleeping giants of the world game and we've got so much to offer the sport."

America, who beat Japan in their first qualifying match, have enlisted the services of former Bradford Bulls coach Matthew Elliott in their bid to pull off a shock but their preparations suffered a setback when they lost 70-0 to Cumbria on Sunday.

American National Rugby League President David Niu, a former player with Sydney St George, said: "We've proved our serious intentions by bringing in Matthew Elliott from Penrith Panthers as our head coach as well as some experienced players from Australia and Britain who have US qualifications.

"We would really have liked to have done this job with all US-born players but we've had to be realistic given the size of the task facing us against Samoa."Conditions for us were not ideal on Sunday and Matthew didn't get the chance to run some of the guys in the combinations he wanted.

"We've had the rest of the week to run that game out of our system and focus on playing Samoa. There's no way we've come all the way across the Atlantic and not have hopes of winning, no matter what the odds might be.

"Matthew has one or two things up his sleeve which will be revealed on Friday evening."

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