Rugby World Cup: Samoa jolted back to reality

Samoa's Viliamu Afatia waves to the crowd after the Rugby World Cup Pool B match between South Africa and Samoa at Villa Park, Birmingham, England. Photo / AP.

As Samoa packed up from their base at the Belfry the day after their crushing loss to South Africa, the message had already been delivered by management that the players needed to get their heads back into the World Cup.

The Villa Park experience was, perhaps, the sobering 80 minutes the Samoans needed to jolt them back into the reality of this tournament.

Up until then, their time in England has had an alien, almost surreal feel to it.

Based in Brighton for three weeks, they were splashing about in the sea, soaking up the sun and then saw their group turned upside down by Japan.

This wasn't what they had been expecting on any level - especially the sunshine, that really threw them.

After a relatively comfortable but unconvincing victory against the USA, they shifted to the exclusive Belfry - home of many a Ryder Cup - and not the sort of place at which Samoa typically wash up when they play offshore.

The surprises finally ended when they encountered from the Springboks exactly what they anticipated. The ferocity brought by South Africa was off the scale - but Samoa knew it would be.

The bear hadn't so much been poked by Japan as whacked repeatedly with a big stick and the response was going to contain anger. What surprised the Samoan players, and disappointed them, was their ability, or lack of, to deal with what they knew was coming.

To some extent they were helpless to do much about it. South Africa in that form are nearly impossible for any side to contain.

But Samoa's lineout needs work. Their general accuracy can be improved and their urgency could come up.

The players knew all this but were urged not to wallow in it. There isn't time. "We obviously had to get through the disappointment, but we live to fight another day this week against Japan," says Samoa's high performance director Alama Ieremia.

"We are pretty keen to switch on for Japan and the key for us is to make sure we are excited and take that out onto the park. We have got a few areas that we need to tighten up."

Nor can Samoa respond by reverting to instinct and emotion. Where they want to prove they have improved is in the sophistication of their analysis and ability to give their natural flair a structured platform from which to work.

Throwing the ball about for fun won't beat Japan and if there is one thing Ieremia wants to categorically establish down the track, is a stronger culture of professionalism.

For too long Samoa lived of raw talent alone. They were a shambles off the field. Their administration was weak and ultimately worked against the team embedding the systems and support structures expected in an international team.

If Samoa are to fulfill their potential - and beating Japan and Scotland and making the quarterfinals remains their goal - this week needs to be spent working on the fine detail of their gameplan.

"There is so much talent in this team and we are willing to go places," says hooker Motu Matu'u. "The management and high performance teams are putting steps in place to allow us to go forward. They are bringing in some specialised coaches and we are in the right spot to go forward. We are also bringing quite a few young guys through as well.
"For the next two games, the key learning we took out of the South African game is that when we do have the ball, we have to treasure it and really look after it. The next two games are not easy. No games at the World Cup are easy so we are going to treat this week as our last."