Scotland face Samoa tomorrow in the second round of the IRB Junior World Championship at the ECO Light Stadium in Pukekohe, New Zealand, knowing that the match represents their best chance of a win.
The sides met twice in France last year, the Scots defeating the Pacific Islanders 36-33 in the final group game in Nantes but then losing 33-24 in a play-off for ninth place, although previous results have little bearing on the current competition because of the change from year to year in the squads.
Scotland suffered physically and psychologically from their 61-5 defeat to South Africa in the opening round on Monday but can take credit for having held the powerful Baby Boks to a 14-5 scoreline at half-time, scoring first through a remarkable try by winger Jamie Farndale.
Samoa lost 48-12 to New Zealand in their opening match and will have been lifted by their performance against the host nation, notably the ability of their heavyweight pack to score a pushover try
The Scotland v Samoa match will be overshadowed in Pool C by the clash between South Africa and New Zealand, a game that could determine the championship. Elsewhere, defending champions England take on Australia in Pool A while Wales, last year's runners-up, face Ireland in Pool B.
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 hereComments are closed on this article