SAMOA TOPS RUSS IA, BUT MUST UP THEIR GAME
SEE YA LATER The Phillies’ Brad Miller is ejected during Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Nationals in Washington Tuesday. The Nationals won that game 4-1, eliminating Philadelphia from playoff contention, and went on to win the second game 6-5.
KUMAGAYA , japan • Samoa did little to suggest they could upset either Scotland or Japan for second place in Pool A at the Rugby World Cup after a 34- 9 victory over a limited and exhausted Russia team at Kumagaya Rugby Stadium on Tuesday.
The Pacific islanders did themselves no favours in a scrappy game that rarely rose to the levels of excitement generated by the noisy crowd at the boutique- sized ground, with Rey Lee-lo and Motu Matu’u both shown yellow cards for high tackles.
The pair narrowly escaped being sent off by Romain Poite after TV match official Graham Hughes recommended only a yellow card because Russia captain Vasily Artemyev had ducked his head into each tackle.
With Ireland comfortably winning their opening game on Sunday with a 27- 3 victory over Scotland, who now have injury problems, the battle for second place in Pool A has opened up between Gregor Townsend’s Scots, Samoa and tournament hosts Japan.
“I was pretty composed but it was more about trying to stick to the game that we trained all week for, and we went away from that, so it was disappointing,” Samoa coach Steve Jackson said. “But we brought it back in the second half and the belief in this group is really high. It was just about getting rid of the silly little errors and fixing up our kicking game.”
Samoa’s chances of making the knockout phase for the first time since 1995, however, also suffered a blow with Afaesetiti Amosa suffering a serious knee injury after he was felled in a high tackle.