SCOTLAND’S STOIC DRAW
BLOOD trickled down the face of exhausted Scotland captain Luke Douglas.
The warhorse prop, who steamed through the middle of the Samoan giants, even brought his battle scars to the post-match press conference on Saturday as a badge of honour to the Braveheart name.
It may have been hailed Scotland’s best effort under the circumstances – a young squad, three players sent home, being belted in their opening two games – but it all came to nothing in a 14-14 draw in front of 4309 fans at Barlow Park.
Some players were left standing, hands on hips, some on heads, lamenting missed opportunities and the Samoans, who went into the match as unbackable $1.01 favourites, were breathing a massive sigh of relief.
Considering their wealth of NRL talent, it was a hopeless performance from the team who has qualified for the quarter-finals, and a date with the Kangaroos, without a win.
Their first half was insipid against a near-flawless Scotland team, who deservedly went to the break with a 14-6 lead.
Samoan winger Matt Wright attempted to field one ball with his feet, Tim Lafai inexplicably offloaded 10m from his own line, which allowed Frankie Mariano to help himself to a try to give the Bravehearts breathing space.
They made the same mistakes in the second half with basic handling errors against a tiring defence that was still heaping on the pressure despite losing one, and then a second player to concussion midway through the first half.
As Samoa bumbled more chances, Scotland clung on to hope, before Young Tonumaipea crossed in the 66th minute to tie the game.
It appeared they thought it was only a matter of time before they sealed it with another try, an attitude that simply let the Bravehearts into field goal range, and they almost sealed it.
Samoa coach Matt Parish was still fuming after full-time at his own side, while praising Scotland for showing them just what it means to play for their country.
At least for them, there’s next week, although it might be embarrassing if they don’t clean up their game and show some “ticker”.
“They probably out-enthused us for most of the game but to our credit, we hung in there in the tough times and were able to get a draw, which was enough to stay alive in the tournament,” Parish said.
“Listen, if we play well, we can compete with anyone in the world. If we hold the ball, we can compete against anyone in the world, but at the moment, obviously what we’re doing on the training field isn’t translating on to the footy field.”
Whatever Scotland did during the week, even after sending three players home for disciplinary reasons, clearly did sink in for some superhuman efforts.
If that was the final game in Australia for Luke Douglas, it was mighty. He threw himself at every tackle and his men followed, although Shane Toal and Dale Ferguson had sore heads after it.
Danny Addy, who was pitchforked into five-eighth, played the second half with a potentially torn hamstring.
“He shouldn’t have been playing,” coach Steve McCormack said of the 26-year-old.
That’s what it meant for Scotland to restore faith in the jersey.
Despite the injury, Addy came within a whisker of slotting a penalty goal from 42m with seven minutes to go, then a field goal from 45m in the 79th you could have been forgiven for thinking it was home.
It was enough to make tears well in McCormack’s eyes as he called it “one of the best performances Scotland’s had for a long, long time in regard to effort”.
“If you think about the young squad we’ve got, first couple of results we’ve had, the resilience, the effort, spirit, the skill, the desire that this team showed here in every bit of adversity that we had, I don’t think anybody’s prouder than myself,” he said.
Samoa will play Australia in Darwin on Friday night.
THEY PROBABLY OUTENTHUSED US FOR MOST OF THE GAME BUT TO OUR CREDIT, WE HUNG IN THERE IN THE TOUGH TIMES AND WERE ABLE TO GET A DRAW SAMOA COACH MATT PARISH