Scotland crash out of World Cup

Daniel Heckenberg's try was disallowed for Scotland

By BBC Sport Online's Phil Gordos at Tynecastle

Scotland 12-20 Samoa

Scotland's hopes of setting up a quarter-final clash with world champions Australia were finally dashed by Samoa.

Needing to win by a margin of two points to progress past the group stages, Danny Russell's men slumped to their third successive World Cup defeat in front of a crowd of just 1,579.

They showed plenty of passion, but costly errors combined with Samoa's power and creativity proved their undoing.

Scotland started well, taking a 2-0 lead when Hull's Matt Crowther kicked a third-minute penalty.

Both sides then had tries ruled out by the video referee before Samoa's Bryan Leauma scored the first try of the game midway through the first half after Matt Daylight had spilled Albert Taulapeau's high kick.

Lead extended

Samoa extended their lead when David Solomona shrugged off several tackles to touch down, Shane Laloata's conversion making the score 10-2.

Willie Poching's side then took another giant step towards victory and qualification to the last eight when Laloa Milford sprinted 90 metres before touching down in the corner after Daylight had made a mess of his attempted pass.

That looked like game over for the Scots, but they got off to the perfect start after the interval, scoring two tries in the space of two minutes.

Scotlands Geoff Bell holds off Samo's Laloa Milford

Adrian Vowles, Super League's Man of Steel in 1999, managed to ground the ball in the corner, quickly followed by substitute Scott Rhodes, who blew a hole in Samoa's defence.

Crowther's conversion reduced the deficit to just two points.

A Laloata penalty opened the gap up to four, but just as the Scots were building up a head of steam, Leauma capitalised on another error.

Danny Arnold tried to keep the ball in play after Samoa had kicked deep but only succeeded in gifting Leauma the chance to hack the ball through and score in the corner.

That made it 20-12 in Samoa's favour and sounded the death knell for Scotland's World Cup ambitions.

---

Scotland: Arnold, Daylight, Gilmour, Bell, Crowther, Purcell, Horne, Heckenberg, Russell (captain), Laughton, Logan, Cram, Vowles.
Subs: Rhodes, Maiden, McDonald, Shaw.

Samoa: Milford, Lima, A Swann, Laloata, Leauma, Fa'afili, Taulapeau, Puletua, Betham, Seuseu, Solomona, Tatupu, Poching (captain).
Subs: W Swann, Leuluai, Leafa, Fala.