Scots brave, ready to crash party
Samoans wretched as Scotland eyeing showdown with the tournament hosts
It was hot, humid and horribly tense until the final five minutes inside the Misaki Stadium, but Scotland secured the bonus point win they needed to keep their World Cup quarter-final push active.
The record books will show the Scots relied on referee Pascal Gauzere awarding them a pair of second half penalty tries, for which he showed Samoan wing Ed Fidow a yellow and then a red card. Mercifully, the decisions were met with no controversy or caustic comments, with Fidow illegally preventing Fraser Brown and then kilted Kiwi Sean Maitland from scoring certain tries.
A similar result for Scotland against Russia in Shizuoka next week should set up a winner-takes-all clash against Japan four days later. The Scots have never been ones to walk away from a party. Now Gregor Townsend will need his team to play the role of unruly gatecrashers against the most gracious of hosts, backed by their fervent support in Yokohama.
“If you are a glass half-full person, you say it’s a really exciting challenge,” Townsend, the Scotland head coach, said. “If you are a glass halfempty, then it is a scary challenge. We will look at that optimistically. We know what it will be like at Yokohama with 70,000 Japanese supporters. The bigger the challenge, the more that brings out in our team.”
The 34-0 win was far from a perfect performance, but helped draw a line under Scotland’s 27-3 thrashing by Ireland in their opening Pool A game. This time it was Scotland who dominated the kicking game and won the collisions, especially in defence where openside James Ritchie was outstanding.
It was the maiden “clean sheet” of the Townsend era and the first time that Samoa had been kept scoreless at a World Cup. Even if Scotland’s handling was far from pristine with 20 turnovers, the effort levels never dipped.
“That was a true reflection of what we are capable of and what playing for Scotland means for these players,” Townsend said.
“That was a tough challenge, knowing that if we underperform we are
out of the World Cup. To see the effort and togetherness was excellent.”
It has to be acknowledged that Samoa were wretched. There are few prouder nations at this World Cup but their courage was sabotaged by a catalogue of basic mistakes.
Fuelled by a perceived injustice over the suspensions of hooker Motu Matu’u and centre Rey Lee-Lo, coach Steve Jackson promised Samoa would come out firing. Instead it was Scotland who set the early physical tone, through Magnus Bradbury and Jonny Gray. They controlled the
early possession, but that was a mixed blessing with the ball as slippery as a gel-smeared eel.
For all their early dominance, Scotland had only a 3-0 lead approaching the half-hour. With passing conditions proving so treacherous, first five-eighths Finn Russell decided to put boot to ball and used a penalty advantage as a free play with an exquisite cross-field kick to Maitland, who took the ball in his stride for a walk-in.
It would get better. Russell never needs a second invitation to attack