Ireland march on to the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup, but let's spare a thought for Samoa who exit stage left after a massively frustrating tournament. They finish on -70 points difference and seem nowhere near the top tier of world rugby. Samoa seemed to consistently be on the receiving end of controversial officiating decisions throughout this tournament, though they did a concede a whopping 17 penalties today. The quality of the match crumbled in the second half, amidst a wave of Samoan indiscipline.
You could sense Samoan captain Jack Lam growing increasingly impatient with referee Nic Berry across the game and when Samoa had a second half try ruled out for a penalty, Lam could not help but air his frustration. Listen closely to the ref mic and you'll hear Lam say: 'Ah fuck off.'
Lam is a fascinating player - at age 31, he has no club and turned down a big contract in France in order to captain Samoa at this tournament (the French contracts all demanded that he to skip the World Cup.) Lam was a great leader of a poor side in a tournament where the gap between rugby's have's and have-not's has never seemed greater. We can understand his frustrations.
Another yellow card against Samoa, captain Jack Lam rightly asks the ref “what do you want us to do?” This is getting to a point where a player can run into contact, drop down at the last second, get contact to the head and then the tackler gets a yellow card. #IREvSAM
— Nick Babaya (@NickBabaya) October 12, 2019
Samoa finish their RWC with a very poor and indisciplined 47-5 loss vs Ireland who with 14 men for 50 minutes attritionally ground them down. This finishes what has not only been a disappointing RWC for the Samoans, but an underwhelming entire 4 year cycle of underachievement.
— Tier 2 Rugby (@T2Rugby) October 12, 2019
