'It's do-or-die for us against England' - Coach Coventry (Samoa)

Tom Coventry, forwards coach

On Samoa's final Pool D game against England being a must-win:

"It is a do-or-die. We came here with aspirations to possibly be a quarter-finalist. We need to think about qualifying and making our pathway easier for the next World Cup. England are a huge challenge, but we have been reasonably competitive against most of the nations that we've played.

"It's just a lack of discipline at times. Playing with 14-men is never easy. You don't win very often when you only have 14 men on the field for the period of time that we did [against Japan].

"There are other aspects of our game which weren't good enough. Our ability to manage the big moments aren't high and we are just giving away too many penalties and ill-discipline with the cards. We need to sort that out. 

"The best we've been was pre-season against Ireland when we gave away seven penalties for the whole game. That's a formula for being in the big matches. It's just too hard chasing games when you are down on numbers and in the heat."

On keeping hold of the ball for longer:

"I'm old fashioned. Sometimes we can take another ruck, we can build more pressure. Sometimes throwing that pass and hoping it will stick will get a nice try off the back, but to me it's about making sure we've got ourselves into space before we make passes. Sometimes we get ourselves caught 50-50. That decision-making process needs to improve.

"Patience is the key and understanding when it's time to finish. We haven't really nailed that either and that's a big part of our game. We look pretty good when we get in behind teams and there are people coming from everywhere and attacking the ball. It's just our hastiness to finish movements which needs to improve. It's not good enough at the moment."

On playing the Manu way:

"If I tried to describe the Manu way it's about playing on top of a team, creating space, then holding the space for players coming from different directions to support the ball. Teams are very good nowadays with their defensive lines and shutting down our attack.

"We managed to go through the middle of the Japanese at times and it was impressive to watch. But defences are very good at not necessarily committing lots of numbers to their breakdown.

"You have got to be careful about getting the equation right as there's only as a certain amount of times you can manage to pick through the middle of a team without exhausting yourself.

"There is a sense of pragmatism as well involved in that process. When do we release, when do the backs play a part in taking the ball from the forwards? When have you been direct enough to then look for opportunities to finish on the edge?

"That's the balance. It looks free-flowing when someone is talking about the Manu way. Pacific Island rugby has been like that before but teams over the years have developed strong defensive systems across the field and you have to be clever how you finish the movements."

On as forwards coach taking pride in the tries Samoa scored late in game:

"It's a big part of the modern day game, isn't it? You need to know how to stop the drive. I think both teams managed to get their drives working at various stages.

"It's very difficult when you have got a team that knows what they're about and you've got different angles. I've been pleased with that part but we are a cog in the wheel. We provide the platform for what goes on behind us. 

"Looking forward to England we are going to have to find a balance between what we're doing up front and what we are trying to do off the back of our carries."

On if he expects England to field a weaker team now they have qualified for quarter-finals:

"With a squad like England it's difficult to know if it's a weakened squad or not.  They will be trying to manage the way they are playing and continue to develop that style they play. It's very methodical, very accurate, all the things that we'd look to have in our game so I'm not expecting them to take us too lightly. 

"They have got too much to play for and they'll want to be trying to keep their ducks in a row for the quarter-finals and how they are going to play in those matches."

On his thoughts on Japan's performance:

"Japan kept their penalty count down reasonably low. They started off quite poorly, but managed to get their discipline under control. Towards the end of the game they were pretty tight in that area. They took their chances well and were accurate at times when we were loose. 

"They kicked and chased well and put plenty of pressure on us behind our forwards with the ball in the air. I suppose Jamie [Joseph, Japan head coach] would have hoped they'd have finished stronger and maybe their bench didn't offer what he wanted them to.

"But at a World Cup it's about winning matches and he got the team to the finish line pretty well. Taking their opportunities was key as the match was pretty tight. I was proud of the way we finished."

On Samoa's schedule:

"It's been like this for a long time. I've been involved with Samoa since 2011 World Cup. The Pacific Island nations and some of the tier two nations were complaining back then around the turnarounds. 

"It's not different now. We have had two six-day turnarounds. We go into a longer break now before England. It is difficult. Sometimes, though, with a sports team it's better to get straight back training after a loss.

"Some teams can manage a longer break but you do get distracted. I'm not too sure what the ideal break is, possibly a normal seven days.

"When you've got teams waiting for 14 days you can get a little bit stir crazy in camp waiting to play and trial some of the new stuff you worked upon. It is what it is. I'd like us to have a week. We haven't made a big deal out of it as we knew well before we came here that we'd have these short turnarounds and we tried to manage the squad appropriately.

"It is an advantage for the team that is waiting from a purely physical perspective; mentally, I'm not so sure. You can spend a lot of time training and waiting and sometimes that emotional energy in the build-up can be negative whereas we are straight back into training and nursing a few bodies for the last week.

"I'm a bit perplexed about the answer as I'm not sure if it hurt us too much training for a short period and getting ourselves ready for Japan."