Samoa play for World Cup pride

ST ETIENNE – Samoa face the United States in a Pool A match today with both sides playing for World Cup pride after five losses from five games buried any hopes of either qualifying for the quarter-finals.

Samoa suffered a 59-7 loss against South Africa, a surprise 19-15 turnaround to rival Pacific Islanders Tonga, and a battling 44-22 defeat at the hands of England. The United States lost 28-10 to England and also went down to Tonga, losing 25-15 on September 12 despite dominating possession and territory.They wrap up their campaign against pool leaders South Africa on Sunday in Montpellier.USA hooker Owen Lentz said the fact his team would be taking on Samoa just four days after the Islanders’ loss to England could work in their favour.”It will be a tough game.They have massive, physical players,” Lentz said.”This time they will only have four days’ rest and we have to profit from that.”Samoan prop Census Johnston admitted that “last week was one of the hardest weeks in Samoan rugby” after the team suffered its third loss in three matches to end any hopes of reaching the knockout stages.”We had a lot of people giving us bad messages.Obviously, the guys are going to be down about that, but we tried to make it up this week by giving them a big performance.”We’re disappointed about how the tournament has gone for us, and hopefully we can give something back to our people back at home, and put on a win.”A win is a win.Obviously we need to get that win no matter how, whether it’s one point, twenty points, it just needs to be a win.”Samoa will be without centre Brian Lima, the only man to have played in five World Cups, after he was banned for three weeks for a dangerous tackle on England flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson during Saturday’s match.His place goes to Elvis Seveali’I, with Lolo Lui coming onto the replacements’ bench.Samoa coach Michael Jones, a World Cup-winner with New Zealand at the inaugural 1987 edition, added that 12 of his squad were also unavailable through injury.”I don’t think we’ve ever had such a bad run of injuries at a World Cup.It’s just the way it goes.It’s a test of the personnel throughout your squad, the whole 30,” Jones said.”Now we’ve lost 12 of our squad.Those (on Saturday) are all tour-ending injuries.”But Jones vowed that the depletion of playing sources and any analysis of Samoa’s under-performance at the World Cup would be put to one side until after Wednesday’s game.”The tour’s not over,” he said.”We’ve still got a very important game to win and win well against USA.”There’s a lot riding on that game, we actually didn’t finish the last World Cup on a high, we lost quite badly to the Springboks, and we’ve a chance to finish our tournament on a high, a real high by beating USA as best we can.”We’re actually fighting not be the wooden spooners.For a proud country like ours, and a proud rugby nation, it means a lot for us to finish well.”Samoa captain Semo Sititi said he was disappointed not to have won a game yet, but added that Samoan rugby had nonetheless profited from each match.”The highlight for me, even though we have lost the last three games, is that the boys have brought something forward to Samoan rugby: they step up after each game,” he said.”They’ve shown the passion and the pride that they carry for Samoan rugby.”Nampa-AFPThe United States lost 28-10 to England and also went down to Tonga, losing 25-15 on September 12 despite dominating possession and territory.They wrap up their campaign against pool leaders South Africa on Sunday in Montpellier.USA hooker Owen Lentz said the fact his team would be taking on Samoa just four days after the Islanders’ loss to England could work in their favour.”It will be a tough game.They have massive, physical players,” Lentz said.”This time they will only have four days’ rest and we have to profit from that.”Samoan prop Census Johnston admitted that “last week was one of the hardest weeks in Samoan rugby” after the team suffered its third loss in three matches to end any hopes of reaching the knockout stages.”We had a lot of people giving us bad messages.Obviously, the guys are going to be down about that, but we tried to make it up this week by giving them a big performance.”We’re disappointed about how the tournament has gone for us, and hopefully we can give something back to our people back at home, and put on a win.”A win is a win.Obviously we need to get that win no matter how, whether it’s one point, twenty points, it just needs to be a win.”Samoa will be without centre Brian Lima, the only man to have played in five World Cups, after he was banned for three weeks for a dangerous tackle on England flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson during Saturday’s match.His place goes to Elvis Seveali’I, with Lolo Lui coming onto the replacements’ bench.Samoa coach Michael Jones, a World Cup-winner with New Zealand at the inaugural 1987 edition, added that 12 of his squad were also unavailable through injury.”I don’t think we’ve ever had such a bad run of injuries at a World Cup.It’s just the way it goes.It’s a test of the personnel throughout your squad, the whole 30,” Jones said.”Now we’ve lost 12 of our squad.Those (on Saturday) are all tour-ending injuries.”But Jones vowed that the depletion of playing sources and any analysis of Samoa’s under-performance at the World Cup would be put to one side until after Wednesday’s game.”The tour’s not over,” he said.”We’ve still got a very important game to win and win well against USA.”There’s a lot riding on that game, we actually didn’t finish the last World Cup on a high, we lost quite badly to the Springboks, and we’ve a chance to finish our tournament on a high, a real high by beating USA as best we can.”We’re actually fighting not be the wooden spooners.For a proud country like ours, and a proud rugby nation, it means a lot for us to finish well.”Samoa captain Semo Sititi said he was disappointed not to have won a game yet, but added that Samoan rugby had nonetheless profited from each match.”The highlight for me, even though we have lost the last three games, is that the boys have brought something forward to Samoan rugby: they step up after each game,” he said.”They’ve shown the passion and the pride that they carry for Samoan rugby.”Nampa-AFP