(CNN)Scotland captain Greig Laidlaw’s late try saw them edge battling Samoa 36-33 Saturday to cruelly dash the hopes of Japan reaching the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals for the first time.
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Matt Scott started at centre for the Dark Blues and Sports Mole grabbed a word with the Edinburgh man after the final whistle. Laidlaw’s cool head led by example as his side shrugged off a monumental effort by the Samoans in the first half.
“I’m really proud of the boys”, insisted Vern Cotter in the post-mortem. What’s going on here?’
An estimated 40,000 Scotland fans were inside St. James’ Park, and they had that “here we go again” feeling. “I suppose that’s what ended up happening”. You can tell they are fired up by watching them sing the national anthem.
“We learned a lot from last week and we can’t revert back to type and how Scotland of old used to play”.
Laidlaw – who scored a decisive touchdown 10 minutes from time to render a last-gasp Motu Matu’u score meaningless – said: “We are delighted”.
Scotland, who finished bottom of the pile in the 2015 RBS 6 Nations, edged proceedings in the second-half and Laidlaw crossed over to place one foot in the knockout stages.
But while Scotland were always favourites to progress from Pool B, few expect them to make it much further in the compeition. “We are aware of the threats that they bring, and know we have to dominate up front and set a platform that allows us to get into the game and release Hoggy and Marky so they can do what they do”.
How about your captain Greig Laidlaw? The margin could have been greater had Laidlaw not gone looking for more when points were on hand, and he looked to have settled things himself six minutes before the end. That was to be the decisive score as Laidlaw picked from the back of an attacking scrum and squeezed over the line to seal the win. I’m so chuffed for him.
Laidlaw scored 24 points to see his side home in a game that could easily have gone the other way. “That goes a long way and it showed today”.
You’ve shown climpses of real quality throughout this tournament, but not quite strung it together over the whole 80 minutes.
“We’re playing this game like it’s a qualifying game”. Then we would have three wins.
Cotter admits the Samoans – who will now have to qualify for the 2019 World Cup after missing out on third place in Pool B – caught his side by surprise with their rampant display.
Physically, how’s everyone doing? With cover in the wide channels nearly non-existent, Lee-Lo only had to slam past the exposed Stuart Hogg on the line to add try number three.
“I think he’s fine”. For me personally, to lead Scotland into the quarters is the highlight of my career.
Live Streaming links will be available one hour before the kickoff so check out this page at around 14:00 United Kingdom time to get the live streams of the game.
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The Scots know it is likely to be win or bust on Saturday.
