A FULLY-FIT Scotland squad with a whole week of preparation behind it is ready to go head to head with Samoa and claim a place in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup, according to assistant coach Duncan Hodge.
The team has had the customary seven days to prepare for a Test match for the first time at the tournament, having had four days then six days for their second and third games in Pool B. With the entire squad of 31 available for selection after hooker Ross Ford and centre Matt Scott passed their final fitness tests, Hodge is sure the team are in good shape to take on the Samoans in Newcastle this afternoon.
“It’s been great to have a seven-day turnaround, have a proper training week,” Hodge said yesterday. “We’ve had a solid day Monday, a big day Tuesday, big day yesterday. So we’ve been able to cover more detail than we’ve probably had [for the] first three games, so that’s been a big plus.
“And having pretty much a full squad to pick from has been a big benefit as well. So it’s been good.”
A win today will guarantee Scotland a last-eight match at Twickenham on Sunday week against the winners of tonight’s Pool A game between Australia and Wales. A draw or a defeat would also be enough provided they finish either ahead of, or level on points with, Japan, who play the United States tomorrow night in Gloucester.
But neither the coaches nor the players are contemplating such permutations. After losing last week to South Africa, who went on to win the pool by beating the USA on Wednesday, Scotland want to end their pool games on a high and go into the knockout stages in the best possible frame of mind.
“Last Saturday we would admit that we probably lost out physically up front,” Hodge continued. “If you don’t front up against any team you’re likely to finish second best. That is definitely true of Samoa.
“That’s something we expect of them, something we’ve talked about and trained for. Now it’s up to us to cut out the talking and do it on the pitch. We know they will come hard and come physical in that first half-hour for sure.
“We didn’t do ourselves justice at the weekend. Now we’re on to a winner-takes-all.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here