JOE SCHMIDT WILL have watched on with interest as Scotland kept their World Cup campaign alive with a 34-0 bonus-point win over Samoa, who Ireland face in their final Pool A fixture in two weekends’ time.
Along with noting that the race for quarter-final spots is heating up in this group, the Ireland head coach will be able to underline to his players that the Kobe Misake Stadium is very difficult to play in.
With the roof closed for all four pool games at this venue due to World Rugby policy, Ireland will have to deal with the humidity and heat on Thursday when they face Russia here.
Simply catching the ball appears to be very tricky in the Kobe stadium, while players on both teams lost their footing regularly this evening.
After England and the US combined for 41 turnovers between them – many of them handling errors – in their clash in Kobe last Thursday, there were a combined 34 turnover concessions this evening as the Scots and Samoans struggled to catch the ball.
Promising attacking opportunities were killed by uncharacteristic errors, while the players are likely to have lost several kgs of body weight due to the sweat.
“It was really tough conditions with the roof closed and the heat,” said Scotland captain Stuart McInally. “Even stepping out for the warm-up, without having done anything yet, I was starting to sweat.
“The ball was slippy but it was the same for both teams. It was pleasing that our defence managed to get a few errors out of Samoan handling. The ball was pretty greasy and it was tough but it was tough for both teams.
“We had done a bit of work in pre-season [in preparation] with a few strategies before we came out, we spent a bit of time in Portugal. I think it helped us.”
Indeed, the Scots put shampoo and conditioner on their rugby balls during pre-season training in a bid to simulate what they might face in Kobe.
Samoa captain Jack Lam agreed with McInally’s assessment of this evening’s conditions, saying there was “a lot of spilled ball” and that “the ball was like a bar of soap.”
Meanwhile, Scotland boss Gregor Townsend said Japan and Ireland are still favourites to qualify out of Pool A after his team had put themselves back in contention with their bonus-point win over the Samoans.
The four-try success means Scotland bounced back from their opening defeat to Ireland and they now look towards a clash with Russia on Wednesday 9 October, before a four-day turnaround to what could be a decisive clash with hosts Japan on Sunday 13 October.
“We’re still in the tournament, so that’s what the win means tonight,” said Townsend.
“The bonus point gives us an opportunity to go to our next game and aim to get maximum points in that game. If we do, it will be a game against Japan to go into the quarter-finals.
“Japan and Ireland still favourites to get out of the pool.
“We have to win our next two games and pick up at least one bonus point in those games, potentially two. We’ll see what happens at the weekend, Japan have a good rest into their game against Samoa [on Saturday], but Samoa have a quick turnaround.
“We have an even quicker turnaround against Japan when we play them in a couple of weeks’ time. The way we’re going to look at the next 10, 11 days is as preparation for both Russia and Japan.
“We have to build towards a game plan that can get us maximum points against Russia but also beat Japan.”