Arizona Tribune - Samoa 'brillant' in loss to Borthwick's England

Borthwick's side had already reached the quarter-finals but neeeded a late Danny Care converted try to avoid a first-ever loss to Samoa.

"Immense credit to Samoa, I thought they played brilliantly," Borthwick told reporters.

"They really tested us, forced us into a lot of errors in a real tough test," he added.

England captain Owen Farrell praised his side's performance late on as they stopped Samoa from scoring, metres away from their line.

"I think the fight we showed towards the end of the game was excellent," Farrell said.

"We found a way to get the try which was needed and the effort to scramble to the end of the game was outstanding," he added.

England, winners in 2003, are likely to face Fiji in Marseille next Sunday.

"As I look towards next week, what I would have wanted today was a tough test and it’s exactly what I got," Borthwich said.

"There was a lot of errors, mistakes, and scrappiness.

"There will be learnings from them and we’ll perform better next week," the former England captain added.

- 'Proud is an understatement' -

Borthwick's Samoa counterpart Seilala Mapusua said he was "proud" of his team but complained that lower-ranked nations suffer from an "unconscious bias" from referees.

Mapusua's side were penalised 14 times and shown a yellow card by Andrew Brace

"I believe there is, I believe there has been in the past," Mapusua told reporters.

"I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault.

"It’s what I’ve seen for the last I don’t know how many years, from when I was playing," the former Samoa and London Irish centre added.

Samoa captain Michael Alaalatoa agreed with his coach, pointing out sides like Tonga and Fiji have also suffered the same fate.

"From what I’ve seen, all Pacific Island nations in the past when they play games, you have to nail everything to get an outcome," the prop said.

"If you don’t it’s going to cost you, whether it’s a skill error or giving penalties away," he added.

Care's try and Farrell's conversion denied Samoa, who finish fourth in the group behind England, Argentina and Japan, a second win in the World Cup.

"Proud is an understatement," Mapusua said.

"I thought we were pretty dominant in most aspects of the game.

"We stopped England's game for about 70 minutes," he added.

O.Brown--AT