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Scots need win to guarantee quarter-final

Roar Guru
9th October, 2015
4

Scotland’s failure to qualify for soccer’s European Championships has piled extra pressure on their rugby team ahead of their crucial World Cup clash against Samoa.

The Scotland flag bearers were playing 48 hours apart attempting to uphold national honour in similar must-win circumstances.

The soccer team’s hopes were dashed when they let Poland’s Robert Lewandowski snatch victory four minutes into stoppage time at Hampden Park on Thursday.

The 2-2 draw ended their chance of making Euro 2016.

The Greig Laidlaw-led rugby team need to beat Samoa at St James’ Park on Saturday if they are to be sure of making the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time since 2007.

Assistant coach Duncan Hodge said if anything came from the soccer result it was the valuable lesson of how things can turn in match.

“It was massively disappointing for the football team last night and it highlights that little things matter,” Hodge said on Friday.

“These games can turn and we’re aware of that.

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“Everything you do is going to have an effect on the game whether that’s a bit of good play or a mistake, and how we move on from that is going to be massive for us on Saturday.”

Hooker Ross Ford said it was now up to the rugby team to atone for the sake of Scotland.

“They were unlucky, it was last gasp and we’ve got to go out and win this game to put us in the quarter-final.”

Scotland began the tournament with a roar, winning their first two matches against the United States and Samoa.

But after their unbeaten start was snapped last weekend by South Africa their tournament path was drastically altered.

They go into their final round-robin match second to the Springboks in Pool B but a mere two points ahead of Japan who will be banking on maximum points in their final game against the US.

“Now we’re on to winner-takes-all for us,” Hodge said.

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“It’s extremely simple, we need to win the game. There are no grey areas at all. We need to perform that is it, at the top, to the best of our ability and if we do that hopefully we can get the job done.”

An issue for Scotland when beaten by the Springboks was they lost out physically and they expect Samoa to come out early with Scotland being notoriously slow starters.

“It is something we have talked about,” Hodge said.

“We know they are going to come at us physically for the first 20 minutes, half an hour.

“We know what Samoa are going to bring. We’ve to get our game right and we have to be adaptable to how they’re going to play.

“With every game of international rugby you set your stuff out (beforehand) but it doesn’t always pan out like that.”

Scotland team to play Samoa:
Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour, Mark Bennett, Matt Scott, Sean Maitland, Finn Russell, Greig Laidlaw (capt); David Denton, John Hardie, Ryan Wilson, Richie Gray, Jonny Gray, WP Nel, Ross Ford, Alasdair Dickinson.

Reserves: Fraser Brown, Gordon Reid, Jon Welsh, Tim Swinson, Josh Strauss, Henry Pyrgos, Peter Horne, Sean Lamont.

Samoa team to play Scotland:
Tim Nanai-Williams, Paul Perez, George Pisi, Rey Lee-Lo, Fa’atoina Autagavaia, Tusi Pisi, Kahn Fotuali’i; Alafoti Fa’osiliva, Jack Lam, Maurie Fa’asavalu, Kane Thompson, Teofilo Paulo, Census Johnston, Manu Leiataua, Sakaria Taulafo.

Reserves: Motu Matu’u, Viliamu Afatia, Anthony

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