‘The cruel nature of sport’: Samoa coach’s ‘heart breaks’ after England loss
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.
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.
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."
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.
“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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All of these media pundits always miss the obvious whenever they analyse what is ailing or assisting the game. Rugby always has contentious points for debate when picking apart individual games and finding fault with itself. All this focus and scrutiny on “speeding up the game”, “high ball in play” etc is all contextual to the fan. As a tv viewer, if you’re absorbed into a game, regardless if your team is playing or not, more ball in play time and action are all byproducts of the contest. A good contest subliminally affects your memory in selectively remembering all the good aspects. A poor contest and your brain has switched off because its a blowout and the result is never in doubt or it’s a real chore to watch and remain engaged throughout. The URC, Top 14 and English premiership are all competitions that feel like there’s real jeopardy each week. The dominance of Super rugby by NZ teams was unhealthy from a sustainable interest perspective. You can’t fault those teams or the players, but the lack of competitions won by SA and Australian teams long term was always going to test the faith and patience of die-hard and casual fans from those regions. SANZAR took their eye off the fans and fans voted with their feet and subscriptions. They were so concerned about expanding their product they forgot the golden rule about broadcasting live sport. Viewers tune in more when there’s an atmosphere and a true contest. You need to fill stadiums to create one, host unions need to do more to service ticket buyers, and this year proves the other, there’s more interest in Super rugby this year only because more games are competitive with less foregone conclusions. All these micro statistics bandied about, only interest the bean counters and trainspotters.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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