Taiwan shock Ireland, Australia through in World Cup

Ireland have crashed out of the World Cup of Darts after suffering one of the biggest shocks in the competition's history at the hands of debutants Taiwan.

Ninth-seeds William O'Connor and Keane Barry looked set to avoid an upset after battling back from 3-1 down to force a deciding leg in Frankfurt.

But Teng Lieh Pupo and An-Sheng Lu regained their composure to secure a 4-3 success and progress as Group E winners, having earlier defeated Lithuania 4-2.

Australians Damon Heta and Simon Whitlock beat Japan's Ryusei Azemoto and Tomoya Goto 4-3 before emerging 4-2 victors over Hong Kong's Matthew Lee and Man Lok Leung to progress at the Eissporthalle.

The Australians now meet Italy, who beat the US (4-2) and Portugal (4-3), for a place in the quarterfinals.

Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, hosts Germany, unseeded Italy, Northern Ireland, Poland and Sweden also progressed.

Northern Ireland booked their place with a 4-3 victory over Switzerland.

Josh Rock and Brendan Dolan, the tournament's sixth seeds, built on Thursday's 4-1 win over South Africa to secure top spot in Group B.

Top-seeds England, Wales, Scotland and the Netherlands enter the action on Saturday after automatically qualifying for the second round.