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England match-up 'do-or-die' for Samoa / Photo: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU - AFP
England match-up 'do-or-die' for Samoa
Samoa forwards coach Tom Coventry said on Friday next week's Pool D game with England is "do-or-die" for their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals.
The Pacific Islanders need to beat the 2003 winners on October 7 and hope that Chile beat Argentina this weekend and then the Pumas overcome Japan on October 8.
More realistic for Coventry's side is to finish third in the group and so claim direct entry into the World Cup in 2027.
"It is a do-or-die. We came here with aspirations to possibly be a quarter-finalist," Coventry told reporters.
"We need to think about qualifying and making our pathway easier for the next World Cup.
"England are a huge challenge but we have been reasonably competitive against most of the nations that we've played," he added.
Before the competition Samoa's belief was sky-high with former All Blacks like Lima Sopoaga and Steven Luatua as well as ex-Wallabies fly-half Christian Leali'ifano involved in their squad.
It was given an extra boost by a four-point loss to world number one side Ireland, just two weeks out from the start of the World Cup.
That positivity has wilted in recent weeks following a defeat to Argentina and losing 28-22 to Japan on Thursday.
"The best we've been was pre-season against Ireland when we gave away seven penalties for the whole game," former back-rower Coventry said.
"That's a formula for being in the big matches.
"It's just too hard chasing games when you are down on numbers and in the heat," he added.
Thanks to Japan's win over Samoa, England have reached the last-eight and could rest a few of their leading players for their game with Coventry's outfit in Lille.
England are set to qualify as pool winners, and are likely to play Fiji or Wales in the next round.
"They will be trying to manage the way they are playing and continue to develop that style they play," Coventry said.
"It's very methodical, very accurate, all the things that we'd look to have in our game so I'm not expecting them to take us too lightly.
"They have got too much to play for and they'll want to be trying to keep their ducks in a row for the quarter-finals and how they are going to play in those matches," he added.
F.T. Michaud--SMC
