Manu Samoa playing for pride

The day of reckoning has arrived for Scotland.

What to look out for tomorrow: No matches means teams can take stock ahead of a busy weekend to close the pool stages.

Scotland’s training base for their Rugby World Cup matches here in Newcastle has been the Royal Grammar School in the leafy Jesmond suburb of the city, and media activities have been conducted in the school’s small but lavishly equipped theatre.

On paper, they should have little to fear. Tighthead prop Hiroshi Yamashita replaces the more experienced Kensuke Hatakeyama, who drops to the reserves, and Justin Ives is at lock for Hitoshi Ono, who became Japan’s oldest ever global at 37 against Samoa. Scotland have lost just one of their previous nine meetings with the Samoans, and that defeat came when a below-strength side travelled to South Africa in the summer of 2013.

Georgia finishes the 2015 Rugby World Cup on a high after beating Namibia 17-16 at Sandy Park. England’s dramatic exit has seen to that, and brought to mind an age-old adage. You need to encourage the big hits and be prepared for them, as this will allow space for others if the passes are timed correctly. “We know what we’re about and we’ve got to perform on Saturday”. For most cities, hosting a World Cup match involving the host nation would be enough of an occasion.

Whereas the minnow teams of the early-World Cups largely featured teams of amateurs, more of the current squads are playing professionally, which has no doubt played a part in their improvement.

Habana scored in the span of 19-second half minutes to cap South Africa’s 64-0 victory over the Eagles, the most one-sided triumph in the history of this year’s tournament.

“We didn’t do ourselves justice and it was very frustrating to go out like that”. We gave ourselves a bit of momentum after the first game in this tournament.

They’ve not had a good tournament; struggling to a win against the United States of America, being smashed by South Africa and then losing last week to Japan.

As well as taking solace from their wins over Japan and the United States, Scotland’s players will also benefit from the support of an army of Scottish fans who have trooped over the border ahead of today’s game.

But after their unbeaten start was snapped last weekend by South Africa their tournament path was drastically altered.

“That’s something we can use but everybody is different”.

“Although, we can’t be swept away with it and stay focused on our task but it’s great to hear flower of Scotland being sung”. The islanders believe they have not lived up to expectations and Scotland offer a last chance to show how good they can be. We are feeling the pain but I think we will leave it at that.

There were a few anxieties about Ross Ford and Stuart Hogg but they’ve been listed in the strongest possible side we could put out. They tell you a load of numbers, and they get longer, and you have to remember them backwards.

“Then there something about closing your eyes and remembering sentences… all that guff”. It worked against us this time and we were on the back foot right from the start.

The footballers’ hopes were dashed when they let Poland’s Robert Lewandowski snatch victory four minutes into stoppage time at Hampden Park on Thursday.