So, farewell: Samoa & Scotland

Samoa

The islanders came into this tournament looking to go past the quarter-finals, their best record at World Cups, which was always going to be a big ask in the same group as South Africa, Wales and Fiji. Sadly, despite a convincing win against Namibia on the opening day and forcing both South Africa and Wales to pull out all the stops, the giants in blue were not quite good enough to advance.

Best moment/worst moment: two narrow losses to Wales (17-10) and South Africa (13-5) constitute both of Samoa’s best and worst moments, as they presented how close the islanders were, their position on the cusp of progressing to the next round, while ultimately revealing their shortcomings in their inability to win.

Highest points scorer: kicker Tusi Pisi, who scored 25 in total and 15 in one game (against Fiji), narrowly ahead of violent full-back Paul Williams, who scored 21 in total and 14 against Namibia, and who got a yellow card in the first game and a red in the last.

Best player: the human tank, Alesana Tuilagi, who scored a great hat-trick of tries against Namibia and was a constant menace from the backs.

Scotland

Andy Robinson’s Scots came into the tournament following great performances in the Six Nations, where the team narrowly lost to France, Ireland and England, and with a united and confident team. From the opening demi-disaster against Romania, however, Scotland looked short of confidence and unconvincing. Two legendary defeats to the other two big teams in the group saw Scotland head home yesterday morning without having got to the quarter-final stage reached in 2007.

Best moment: Scotland’s finest hour was probably against Romania, where the team showed mental strength and resilience to come back from a Romania lead to totally rip the Oaks apart in the last ten minutes. The game finished 34-24 and suggested that Scotland still had some work to do.

Worst moment: take your pick. Scotland faced two crunch games, first against Argentine last weekend and then England on Saturday, and almost won both – only to be robbed by lapses in concentration in defence in the last ten minutes. The inability to score tries and put games to bed cost the Scots their quarter-final place, although it is hard to tell result would be more punishing for the Home Nation: 13-12 to Argentina, or 16-12 to England.

Highest points scorer: faintly surprisingly, replacement kicker Dan Park scored more than kicking legend Chris Paterson (24 to 23).

Best player: Chris Paterson kicked the most important of Scotland’s points and put them in the positions that the team had to be in to win, only to watch them fail to.