Ireland vs Samoa is almost upon us - Wallabies legend and current Samoa attack coach Chris Latham has warned Off The Ball that his team are ready to upset the Irish.
“I truly believe that we can get a really good upset,” he said ahead of the side's final Pool A World Cup clash.
He sat down with Alan Quinlan and our man in Japan, Eoin Sheahan.
When Quinlan asked if he expects an Irish backlash following their early struggles in the tournament - he said that Samoa are ready for Ireland to bring emotion and immense physicality to the occasion:
"Our whole sense around Ireland is that they are mentally and physically going to have to go for it, because they are going to need five points out of this game.
"Our gameplan, if we execute it, the way we need to, hopefully, we'll turn their game plan into a negative for them.
"We just have to make sure that we execute and we execute well, because we do believe they are going to come at us."
Australia's Chris Latham scores a tryIreland vs Samoa
He believes that emotion and physicality go hand and hand in Irish rugby:
“If they bring that emotion - you know that they are going to bring that physicality."
While Samoa will not reach the quarter-finals, they are relishing the opportunity to secure a historic victory over a Tier One nation on rugby's biggest stage:
“It’s a chance for a tier-two nation to knock-off a tier-one team, and we are treating it as such."
Munster calling
Chris Latham also talked to Quinlan about almost joining Munster:
“It’s probably one of my biggest regrets in life.
"I did the wrong thing by someone who I respect dearly, Alan Gaffney who was the coach at the time
“The pressures of staying in Australia, the pressures of family, the community in Brisbane. All of that got on top of me and I didn’t handle that well."
He added that although the pair ultimately, "mended bridges," he still feels some regret over his failure to follow-through on the verbally-agreed deal.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
