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‘The cruel nature of sport’: Samoa coach’s ‘heart breaks’ after England loss

The players of Samoa prepare for kick-off ahead of the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between England and Samoa at Stade Pierre Mauroy on October 07, 2023 in Lille, France. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

Samoa’s Rugby World Cup campaign came to a “disappointing” end on Saturday night. They were minutes away from their first-ever win over England but fell painfully short of history.

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Steve Borthwick’s men didn’t play well – they were far from their best – but they did enough to win 18-17 at Stade Pierre-Mauroy in the final round of pool play.

Led by playmaker Lima Sopoaga, Samoa were simply better for long stretches of the contest. The Pacific Islanders held a slender six-point lead going into the final 10 minutes but couldn’t keep out the relentless waves of England’s attack.

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      Replacement Danny Care scored a decisive try with eight minutes to play and an Owen Farrell conversion handed England the lead for the first time in about 50 minutes.

      The Samoan players looked hurt, frustrated and momentarily broken as the full-time whistle sounded, and the sombre feeling was shared by head coach Seilala Mapusua post-game.

      “That was a tough one. If I’m being honest, my heart breaks for these boys,” Mapusua said after the one-point loss. “I thought they deserved a lot more.

      “We did enough to earn victory. Such is the cruel nature of sport, it wasn’t to be.”

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      Flyhalf Lima Sopoaga, who was awarded Player of the Match honours, couldn’t hide from the pain of defeat as he was presented with his trophy. Prop Michael Alaalatoa looked shattered as well with the camera panning to the Australian-born front-rower just after the full-time whistle.

      Samoa started their World Cup campaign with a dominant 43-10 win over Chile but failed to back that up with another positive result on the scoreboard.

      Losses to Argentina, Japan and now England saw Sopoaga suggest that the players “didn’t give the jersey the justice it deserved.” But Samoa should hold their heads up high.

      “Pride is an understatement,” Mapusua continued. “I thought we were most dominant in most facets.

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      “We were able to expose some space in open field, especially in the wider channels, and we were able to stop England for 70 minutes.”

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      Comments

      6 Comments
      S
      SinclairWhitbourne 578 days ago

      There did seem to be a disjunction between the TMO at times and the on-field refs. The no try call did seem troubling to me.

      J
      JoNo 578 days ago

      I don’t know what to call the officiating in that game….was really thinking about it…and I cannot think of any other word but…. Racism… that’s all it can be not sure what else to call it?

      J
      Jimmy 578 days ago

      Absolutely! I could not agree more!

      S
      SR 578 days ago

      Samoa were robbed no clear indication at all that ball came off a Samoan hand. Try should have been awarded.Brace took TMO’s word for it but he was looking at exactly the same screen and clearly was unsure.

      G
      Grant 578 days ago

      Absolutely, woeful and embarrassing call.

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      B
      BigGabe 20 minutes ago
      'Love him or hate him, Henry Pollock has got the rugby world talking.'

      Fair commentary. I am not sure it would probably work against him though, since his temmates have come out and said that they enjoy it. Similarly, Irish fans seem to enjoy Lowe’s celebrating and English fans their “plastic energy” players.


      Oof, that Stormers comment..as a Stormers fan, it hurts to be a Stormers fan. We can be so good, but also we can collapse like a house of cards. I do think that there is a line, I would agree with you. But I also very much think that the rugby public blows it out of proportion when someone gets exuberant (Lowe annoys the daylights out of me, but that’s his game and he is good at it. I am sure plenty of people find Faf annoying too). I’m not sure rugby will go the way of the NFL though, I do think that on a cultural level rugby playing nations (and the cultural demographics that go into playing rugby) differ vastly from the US. The US as a nation is very much about bravado. Similarly, the argument about rugby devolving into football, it is a sport that rewards theatrics so naturally theatrics enter into the culture. I don’t see rugby going that way, there is something different about rugby and the people that it attracts. Perhaps it is the gladiatorial aspect, or the lack of insultingly large paychecks. I am not sure, it would be interesting to conduct a study on this to be honest.


      Yes, my examples go back quite far and are sporadic inbetween. But this makes me wonder - does rugby not have so many showboats because it doesn’t attract showboats or because it doesn’t allow showboats?

      12 Go to comments
      W
      Werner 43 minutes ago
      URC teams aren't proving Stephen Donald wrong

      3 things:


      1) I don't think you have an understanding of what sort of politics goes on in SA, you are assuming it's very competitive and performance focused same as NZ, I can tell you it's a lot greyer and more ambiguous but green and gold goes along way in greasing wheels. Often revenue at the state and national level are prized more by some in the SARU despite the impact of accepting it, but you will never heard them own it.


      2) While we're comparing national teams performance to gauge the ‘domestic’ comps, you do realise that both Ireland and Scotland are higher in rankings and have better recent record than Fiji and Australia who are in the SRP right? And when was the last time either of them made a final in SR? 2014! But here's the thing…. I never said URC is better than SRP, imo they are about the same each with their benefits and different style. Where as you harp on about how crap URC teams are but not why SRP is better. Have SRP teams faired better against European teams? No? So how do you know and ‘demonstrate’ this inferiority? both have a range of good and bad countries competing (URC has slightly more higher ranked teams). Both are dominated historically by one country and team (Leinster/crusaders). So what is this demonstrable fact I'm missing? What's the point of difference other than subjective opinion


      3) let me understand this, the only decent team in the URC is Leinster as they are good enough to make Eurochamps finals but not good enough to make the finals of the URC the last 2 years. So they despite beating Leinster (the EC finalists and good team) the other URC teams are still crap?

      50 Go to comments
      P
      PR 1 hour ago
      'Love him or hate him, Henry Pollock has got the rugby world talking.'

      There are degrees of taunting. In my opinion Pollock is slightly OTT. Nothing offensive, just what Australians call “a goose”. Like James Lowe and Ben Earl. Celebrating wildly and often towards the crowd throughout the game. “Plastic energy” as Bongi calls it. It’s the kind of behaviour that turns a hostile crowd more hostile and motivates opponents even more - so probably works against your own team. Pollock is young and having the time of his life so his antics are understandable but I think most people find that kind of showboating annoying - hence the ‘love him or hate him’ tag.


      The reason why the behaviour of Pollock makes headlines is because it is still quite rare in rugby. Your examples go back to 1974, 2003 and 2022. Of course there are chirps between players during a game but what Pollock is doing is more like the showboating you see after a touchdown in NFL. He’s not the only one of course. Just about every Stormers try comes with an elaborate handshake or routine. Perhaps the future of rugby is more like NFL but I reckon it will always be annoying to a lot of people.


      Also, unless you are Matt Williams or Gregor Townsend, 6-2/7-1 was never against the spirit of the game. It’s an argument brought up by pundits to get attention or frustrated coaches who are trying to justify poor results. Most coaches, players and supporters get it. Even World Rugby gave it the thumbs up. It should be celebrated for its innovation.

      12 Go to comments
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