Scotland have come out 34-0 victors against Samoa in Pool A of the Rugby World Cup in Japan this morning.
First half-tries from winger Sean Maitland and scrum-half Greig Laidlaw, followed by two second-half penalty tries handed the Scots a crucial bonus-point victory in the pool.
After an even enough start it was Scotland that got the opening score of the game through the boot of Laidlaw as he knocked over a simple enough penalty.
However, despite having a large amount of possession it took until the 30th minute for the Scots to register another score, but it was worth the wait.
After some nice build up play fly-half Finn Russell produced a brilliant cross-field kick over the left-hand side within the Samoan 22 metre-line, where Maitland caught the ball and got in for Scotland’s first try at this World Cup. Laidlaw was perfect from the tee to push them 10-0 in front.
That score was followed up by another try only four minutes later when the Scots made light work of the Samoan defence, breaking straight through the middle of the pitch and Laidlaw finished off the move by waltzing in for a try under the posts. He converted his own try to make it 17-0.
Just before half-time Stuart Hogg knocked over a classy drop-goal from behind the Samoan 10-metre line to leave it at 20-0 when the whistle blew to close the opening half.
It was a scrappy second-half with a lot of handling errors and it took until the 58th minute for the opening score to come but yet again it was the Scots who got it.
After putting some pressure on in the opposition 22 the Samoan’s eventually caved when winger Ed Fidow was judged to have taken down a maul from the side resulting in a penalty try which made it 27-0 to Scotland with little over a quarter of the match to go.
Fidow’s night got from bad to worse on 74 minutes when he was sent off for sliding in with his legs on Maitland in the left-corner, which gave him a second yellow of the game. From that collision another penalty try was awarded to the Scots, giving them the bonus-point and a 34-0 lead.
Despite being down to only 14-men the Samoan’s looked the more likely to score in the final moments, however, they couldn’t break through the Scots leaving the final score at 34-0.
Scotland will look to build on this win when they take on Russia next Wednesday in what is another must win game. While Samoa will still feel as though they have a chance to progress to the quarter-finals if they can pull off a win against Japan on Saturday October 5th.
Scotland Player Ratings
Starting XV:
Stuart Hogg (8), Darcy Graham (7), Chris Harris (7), Sam Johnson (6), Sean Maitland (8), Finn Russell (7), Greig Laidlaw (8); Allan Dell (7), Stuart McInally (7), Willem Nel (7), Grant Gilchrist (7), Jonny Gray (9), Magnus Bradbury (7), Jamie Ritchie (7), Blade Thomson (8)
Replacements (6)
