11/11/2013 Rugby League World Cup

Welcome to highlights of the Rugby League World Cup. Our feature match

is France versus Samoa, the last game in the group stages. The

outcome of this one will determine England's quarterfinal opponents.

So far, France have scored just one try in the tournament - fewer than

any other team. That was in their narrow win against Papua New Guinea

in the first match, beforing soundly beaten by New Zealand in their

second group game. Samoa have provided the toughest test for New

Zealand so far. They lost to the Kiwis with a good

win over Papua New Guinea in the second game. For the

win over Papua New Guinea in the up against. And all of this on

Armistice Day, where we will observe a minute's silence. We are so

enormously grateful. (silence) To

those who served, they will never be forgotten.

The captaincy had been a bit of a poisonous Chancellor has as we

confirm the line-up. Soliola and then but up quickly is

Pelissier. The fans are cheering, hearing in

Perpignon. Roberts dishes up a short ball.

Now for Vido, big, strong, and unstoppable. He just went straight

over the top of William Bartou on that left side, and Vido scores the

first try of the night for Samoa. They push it over to the left,

first try of the night for Samoa. realises he's got Bartou coming on

to him. Samoan team worked it on the left, finished it on the right.

Fortuitous with the long pass. What do you aim at tonight? This sort of

breeze, the ball is wobbly on the kicking tea. What is the strategy

for kicking yourself? He's going to go left post and ride it back

against its short-termal shape. See if he can somewhat reverse kick it

back in. There is the kick. He got it. It's blowing straight through

the middle! He has a beautiful ball away.

Vidot will be penalised. Late hit, in fact.

the shot. You are a villain here in Perpignon.

You should wear the black cloak! Always worse in slow motion.

He has been called out now. He did some damage to some damage Bartou

Here we with France. Big night for Casty. Back left side, and the ball

comes loose. They had an opportunity! Bartou has gone down as

well. This is getting lively. They're all up on their feet here in

Perpignon. That was a brave play, because he

wore it the last time. has still got most of them intact?

There goes the little bloke again. Pelissier.

Nine minutes There goes the little bloke again.

Pelissier. Nine minutes away from the line. --

nine metres away from the line. Play on. It's going to bounce up igh.

They made an absolute meal of it. What about tha D Duport. Oh, la, la,

what about this. La poop happens! He just required the one or the one

set of He just required the one or the one

got him front on. This crowd, they're nice and cosy

here tonight, cool and windy in Perpignon, but nice - on the field

there is another big tackle. Tackle.

. 25 metres away from the line. 060 score line. Running to the half, and

he has stolen a penalty. The French - there is harm's up. The crowd is

up again. Just come on the field. Cops his

shoulder in a shot to start with, and then slammed into the ground.

This is the tackle that. Happy?

Ten on the line for Samoa. The French team are under pressure

again. They trail by six. Milford is up there. Milford this time elects

to go short to Amel. Could have been offside just about. So the French

look at how farther. Look at this. Great defence from the French. High

fives all round. They've come from the wing as well. All 13 players

want to congratulate each other for that. Even Henry give them a

want to congratulate each other for Soliola. No hole there.

Simon held up by the defence. Pelissier is in that dummy half

position again ready to send them off on their way.

position again ready to send them The body shot.

, this crowd is going off here. This is a big call to make.

There it is. The sin-bin is in play, and it is repeated infringements. It

is not that incident in isolation. Mssoe cops it. It is a great scene

here at the Rugby League World Cup. The back of a wonderful crowd at

Halifax yesterday, one of the traditional grounds.

It's a feel-good tournament this one, if you're a Rugby League fan.

He scores. Morgan, beautiful footwork, straightens

The French make the most of it. Watch the work of Vidot. Gets a good

quick pass away, and then popping up on the right-wing.

Lovely little hand, flat attack, good footwork.

23 test matches for Thomas Bosc. He is successful.

So what - 32 and a half minutes gone. A 6-6 score line. Baile played

his part, and the fullback, well, he deserves the try, doesn't he? Just

keep an eye on the clock in this se 42 metres from the France line.

Soliola to set afield. He has had a big first half in

attacking the defence, the captain for Samoa. They

attacking the defence, the captain Another step and swerve. Links up -

yes, he has put on his back. Thackery gets the shot. The ball com

for A Amel -- ball comes for Ah Mau: Roberts, he has thrown it forward. A

great little double round. Plays a bit of basketball out the back. What

a first half here in Perpignon. This ball short on. And good tackle

gets him to ground. And out try.

God knows they're a creative player. When he steps away and gives the

football out, he finds this man is quite breathtaking in the footwork

ofantmy mill -- of Anthony mill I said. Squeezes himself through. Just

a -- Milford. Then it steps through the left, opens up, shoots off his

right. Milford kicking into the wonderful

stand and then into the ground. You wonder if he is a full back or

whether the half position is going to be as come. You see him hunt up

around the middle. He can't coach that. Full set to work with here. 15

minutes into the second half. Maybe they're going to try

next to score. They want to lock it up at St 12. On it comes, Baile. He

has got it down. He has got up, he thinks the try, Baile.

We can't you any closer than this, can we? What do you reckon? No try,

I don't know. It's no try. It's France's turn to defend, as we

get up to the final quarter of the match. This is Ah Mau. Right now, we

begin the last quarter of what has been an absolutely absorbing game.

Scored for Samoa. Again, they will check it with the

video referee. with the right hand.

Milford who landed one from the side early, he is unsuccessful there.

Let's have a look, good work from dummy half. Shows the tip-on from

Soliola. That is the work I was talking about. Loves the right-hand

carry and therefore can get himself in a position where he gets the ball

around. Here they go right through the

centre. He has angle-tapped. Still on.

Escare gets the ball. Tries to come back in field. Ten away from the

line. He was looming. They couldn't get the ball.

Eight eight minutes to go. Green shields big overlap. Bosc knows it.

Out it comes, stepping shields big overlap. Bosc knows it.

going to get there, and, Ah Mau comes up with a tackle.

Six to go, so this city founded in the tenth century is having one of

its best nights of Rugby League. Why didn't they get on to the Rugby

League in the medieval days. It would have been the world game by

now. They would have loved it now. They would have gun out with axes.

That would have been good to watch. The ball is with Godinet. Power

played the score. It had to happen. Samoa have finished off the night

with an exclamation mark, and they have their fourth try,

with an exclamation mark, and they dummy half again. Morrs picks up the

try. Tar They are a very good team, certainly showed good attack. I am

immensely proud of the boys, the way they defended and the way they

worked for one another. I thought we had enough opportunity to win the

game three times. I thought we had what looked like certain strikes I

thought our skill level and our execution, and the wasted plays that

we had in the final third of the field didn't warrant us winning the

game. The French boys were really strong through the middle. We know

we had a good forward pack, and we had to stick it to them. Happily

enough we came back with a win. Another hugely enjoyable game to

watch. Another one off the conveyor-belt of this great World

Cup, and a missed opportunity for the French, and what about the

Samoan defence. We often talk about their great attack, but they bent

have guys up for disciplinary hearings this week. I think Almal -

I think Ah Mau are in potential trouble. But this is the way the

Samoans defend aggressively. These things happen in a contact sport.

He's a big guy, and he's trying to be aggressive. Samoa all day were

aggressive but had great attention to detail with the defence, and that

will be encouraging for Samoa going into the next land. They will need a

decent lawyer because four will be queuing up at the RFL. Two have a

case to answer, definitely. So we know now that England will play

France in their quarterfinal. This is how the two teams got there. It

does smack, though, that France have scored just two tries so far in this

competition. They've got to sort out that, haven't

competition. They've got to sort out thought Roberts their half really

created some opportunities, and so the French have to find some way of

getting over the line. They've gone from south to north, where they need

to be, but just lack a little bit of flair on the fringes. They are

getting into the right positions. They are giving that go-forward and

not dealing with it off the back of it. Remi has highlighted that he

does some of the little attributes in the game very well. He's an

aggressive guy, he takes the ball into the teeth of the defences and

gets the French team rolling forward. As Brian alluded to, the

issue is once Remy does these kind of plays where he finds an inside

shoulder, off-loads the ball, the French execution off the back of

that clearly isn't good enough at the moment. I think what is really

encouraging is France today through Casti

encouraging is France today through a couple went to Jean Phillipe.

Let's not take what Vidot did on the wing for Samoa, he picked Baile up

not to get the ball down. Again, I remind you what the French can take

away was that that was a really committed Samoan team. They come up

against England and the talisman has been Sam Burgess. He hasn't played

for a while. We've been talking about him a lot. The reason is his

aggression, his physicality, and his work rate, and his attitude towards

the game. He inspires others around him with his work ethic and

attitude. For me, a talisman can be a couple of things: a physically

imposing player who changes the game, or, like Sam does with his

attitude and attention to detail, and create opportunities to get the

ball back with his defence, and be aggressive on his team-mate there.

ball back with his defence, and be tissuely. But, boy, can he play. He

is a smart player. He knows how and when to play. When you look at his

stats, what is special about him? I think metres for the start. Every

carry he takes, he's making about eig or nine metres, and for a front

rower in the modern game, that is fantastic. When he is taking this,

he is punching through the line, creating space, and creating an

unstructured ruck that usually creates in quick play of the balls.

We were talking about Sam's ability to play all styles of rugby. A lot

of the direct stuff that England do well is off the back of Sam Burgess.

The first one of the quarterfinals, it is Scotland who has been one of

the stories of the tournament, unbeaten in the tournament against

another unbeaten team in the champions New Zealand. It's going to

be tough for them. Danny Brough is going to be key if they're to gain

anything out of this, are not they? We are underestimating the Scots a

little bit. Don't get me wrong, the magnitude

little bit. Don't get me wrong, the as what they have. I think they've

been a great story, the challenge is coming out of the group they've been

in to play big boy now in New Zealand. That is the challenge. It's

a different level of performance needed from Brough from Henderson,

and Wallace to take them on. They rocked Tonga in the first game which

got them to the quarterfinal. They have a similar challenges. They've

got nothing to lose, and it's going to be a great atmosphere. We talked

a lot about Williams, but New Zealand, it is a big strong team,

the guy that moved them around is Isaac Luke. How do you think he has

come on. His decision-making in the World Cup is fabulous. I would love

to play against him in that mood, but his decisions have went wrong

and went to parks but I think in this tournament, it's the best I've

seen him. He picks off some tired defenders when he needs to there as

we've seen, pushing through, and he also knows when to pass

we've seen, pushing through, and he right times. 480 metres he has run

for in the tournament which is fantastic. The other story is the

USA Tomahawks. They take on our Australia. That's going to be a

really tough one for them, but they've just had a wonderful

tournament, haven't they? Do you know what, they deserve it. They

played with well in the games I've seen, and they've come from nowhere.

We've been talking about Italy, and we've been talking about the USA,

the Tomahawks. When they've played, they've played with well. They

defended - they ran out of juice against Scotland and probably would

have got closer to the Scotland team the other night. I think they've got

cracking players, and Australia will get it their own way. Ironically,

one of the players for Australia, certainly in the last games has been

Cherry-Evans the strength and depth is that that he might not get a

game. He has been fantastic. As a half back,

game. He has been fantastic. As a that is the scary thing is that he

would get in most of the teams in the World Cup, and he's going to

struggle to get in the Australian team. The last quarterfinal is

probably the toughest to call, Fiji-Samoa. Samoa might be minus a

few players. We want to see the best players on deck. I am salivating

now. That's going to be a great game. Those two island nations going

against each other. It won't lack the element of physicality, will it?

They both play the same way, both go forward and straight. One thing I

noticed, doing the coverage on the England-Fiji game last week, the

limited shape Fiji have. That leads itself to a physical game. Samoa

relish that situation as well, so I expect to see two big forward packs

hitting it out. We've got some big backs in that game. It is set up at

Warrington to be backs in that game. It is set up at

each other. I think the halves of Samoa are probably of better quality

than Fiji. For you? I think it is going to be really close. I think

with Samoa having a couple of players potentially in trouble this

week, I think that brings them back down on to a level with Fiji. It's

going to be really close but aggressive and intense, all the

things that we've seen through every game in the World Cup should be

exemplified in that. So this is the quarterfinal line-up in full.

Scotland take on t champions New Zealand on Friday night, it is

Australia against the USA Tomahawks followed by England versus France on

Saturday. And on Sunday, Samoa face Fiji. There is live commentary on

all of the quarterfinals on Radio five Live sports Extra. We will

start our build-up on Saturday, shortly after five o'clock on BBC

two. shortly after five o'clock on BBC

Your weekend wouldn't be complete without making a date for the

highlights show next Sunday on BBC Two: Eight

we started with 14 teams, now we're down to eight. The next time we meet

you, we will be down to the final four.

See you next week. Goodbye.