Rugby-Samoa save best for last, but fall just short

By Mark Trevelyan NEWCASTLE, England, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Samoa played their best rugby of the Rugby World Cup to push Scotland to the limit before going down 36-33 on Saturday, but were left ruing a string of second-half penalties that cost them the chance of victory. The Pacific Islanders, already out of quarter-final contention after earlier defeats to South Africa and Japan, gave the Scots a mighty scare with a breathless display of running rugby that earned them three first-half tries. "It was all about us and our performance -- we had to put pride back into what we do," captain Kahn Fotuali'i told reporters. "It's just unfortunate this performance came four games too late. We had to muscle up, be direct and just get back some enjoyment in the way we play as islanders." Coach Stephen Betham echoed his captain's thoughts. "I was really proud of the performance," he said. "We played right up to the 80th minute and we gave everything. I take my hat off to the boys. "We played our finest game but we still fell short. The road's finished for us now and we've got to look forward ..." Samoa's discipline let them down in the second half, and they gave away a string of penalties which allowed the Scots to regain control of the match. Scotland captain Greig Laidlaw punished them for their indiscretions as he drove his country to victory, kicking five penalties to add to a late try and three conversions. "Towards the end we gave away too many penalties," Betham said. "We gave away 13 penalties, and you can't win test matches when you give away that many penalties." Despite the encouraging performance, the Samoans will head home having failed to get out of their pool for a fourth successive World Cup. It was a far cry from the glory days when they won through to successive quarter-finals at the 1991 and 1995 World Cups and earned a playoff spot in the 1999 tournament. Betham said there would be plenty to learn from their disappointing campaign as they looked ahead to the 2019 World Cup in Japan. "For us it's a four-year build-up," Betham said. "We've got to go now and do our reviews and find out where we went wrong." (Editing by ...)