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Scotland edge Samoa to end Japan’s hopes

Samoa will finish fourth in Pool B – behind Japan – and must now qualify for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. There’ll be bumps and bruises, I’ve certainly got a few and a big gash on my knee. “We are ready and of course we will be the underdogs, but Scotland relish being the underdogs”.

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‘Don’t forget Scotland have had a decent record against Australia in the past and we have a great chance of winning. We’ve worked very hard to come from where we were to get to where we are at the moment. Scotland coach Vern Cotter has all his players available against the matchup with Samoa. Every team with three group victories at previous World Cups has reached the last eight.

But Maitland – who was rested against South Africa after featuring in the victories over Japan and the US – accepts that the at-times patchy performance in defence which allowed Samoa to score three tries on Saturday can;t be repeated against Australia.

“Not just that, we’ve got a lot of talent but we haven’t shown it. We haven’t shown anything of it all the tournament”, coach Stephen Betham said. We have to boss it up front for that to happen.

But Hogg is still wary of what the Pacific Islanders could do to their own ambitions.

Samoa scored through Tusi Pisi, Ma’atulimanu Leiataua and Rey Lee-Lo in a thrilling first half.

Defeat would have handed the initiative to Japan but the Kiwi managed to settle his team down at the break.

But Dark Blues skipper Greig Laidlaw dragged his side through with a combination of booting brilliance and a heroic try seven minutes from time before Samoa’s Motu Matu’u’s dived over to put the Tartan Army through an agonising last three minutes.

Imagine where it could lead if Japan reaches the quarterfinals. Their discipline has been poor in this tournament – and they conceded 19 penalties here – but they remained a danger because of the quality of the strike runners in their backs, and Scotland couldn’t cope in a dramatic first half of end-to-end action. “They were impressive, and we had to change the way we played”, Cotter told reporters.

“We’re going into a quarter-final now and we’re going to give it absolutely everything”, added Scott.

“Obviously we hadn’t planned to be behind for so long. They got the ball back from there and put us under pressure”, he said of the restarts. “But we stayed in there”. “Did we really expect to win two games?”

“That was the message at half-time – don’t panic and you’ll grind them down”.

The Scots head to St James’ Park hoping that the oldest football stadium in north-east England will be kinder to them than it has been to regular football hosts Newcastle United this season.

“We have to improve”, Gray said.

“It was a special day”. We don’t believe in ourselves.

“I was really proud of the performance”, he said.

“Maybe the fact they have nothing to play for will make them slightly loose this weekend but if we defend properly we feel there will be opportunities for us to attack”.

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It was a lead they didn’t relinquish as both sides failed to score again until the 73rd minute.

The Samoa vs Scotland will commence at 2.30pm London time. World Rugby