Scots ease aside Samoa to revive World Cup hopes

Posted by poch1991@jourrapide.com on October 1st, 2019

Townsend was asked if his players should now be "energised" after moving to within a point of Ireland and four of pool leaders Japan.

"They should be," he replied. "There's no better feeling than coming back from adversity or rising to a challenge with your mates and delivering.

"They deserve the two or three days off that they're going to get now. It's just over a week until our next game but 10 days really focused for the Russia and the Japan games."

After Japan's shock victory against Ireland on Saturday, Scotland face a scenario in which they could go out of the tournament even with three wins from four pool matches.

Japan themselves are the only country in World Cup history to have won three pool matches and not progressed to the quarter-finals, as happened four years ago in England.

Scotland therefore need to beat Russia then Japan with a bonus point, and deny the hosts any points in their final pool clash to give themselves the best chance of progression.

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