Had anyone cared to thumb their way to the second to last page in yesterday's match programme in Nantes, there was a snap shot of Samoa's glory days at the Rugby World Cup.

Those famous victories against Wales in 1991 and 1999 that made them the darlings of world rugby. Stephen Bachop in his prime with hands raised on Cardiff Arms Park. And Semo Sititi doing likewise eight years on at the newly minted Millennium Stadium.

Yesterday in Nantes was Samoa's chance to do it all again. But England was too big, too strong and superior in the little things that win rugby matches.

After the failure of 2003 and in the wake of Michael Jones' decision to stand down as coach it's become obvious the team, which some rugby luminaries believe has the ability to win the tournament, has been left behind in the professional age and the prospect of a repeat of 1991 or 1999 is now the stuff of dreams. Jones said so himself, if not in a slightly different context.

"We are bitterly disappointed because that is our tournament," he said.

"We really wanted to make the quarters this year.

"It's hard when you fall short after four years of hard work.

"We aimed for the moon. As long as you give your best and are prepared to pay the price then you will finish somewhere up in the stars.

"I think we were somewhere up in the stars today, at least for 70 minutes."

And that for mine is bloody sad. Sad for rugby fans who like nothing better than an upset at the cup, especially when it's the Poms being beaten. But especially sad for the current crop of Samoan players.

After 1991 and to a lesser degree 1999, although the horse had probably bolted by this stage, the game had a chance to give Samoa a leg up and nurture them into another much needed world power.

But the hand outs came too late.

And today's generation are playing with a weight on their shoulders too heavy to bear. Even their own fans are serving it up to them. Census Johnson, the big Samoan prop told me in the aftermath of yesterday's game, the team had been sent abusive messages after losing to Tonga.

"Guys like Brian [Lima] have talked about doing something special and this year we have not been able to pull it off so the boys are disappointed.

"Last week was one of the hardest for Samoan rugby when we lost to Tonga. The boys got a few nasty messages and were reading stuff on the internet about us so the guys were down about that.

"We tried to make it up to them this week by giving them a big performance but just fell short."

Exactly why is not hard to work out. Samoa rugby has next to no infrastructure compared to England. Most of their players in fact play there. A quick look at the club of origin yesterday illustrated just how many are now based in Europe. Only one from the backline plays elsewhere and come November he's heading to Toulon.

Samoan rugby turns over a few millions dollars year which is peanuts for the Rugby Football Union. Jones spoke about the constant struggle of being able to make ends meet in the islands. Things are on the improve.

"But it's hard keeping pace with the western world," said Jones. "We might be making progress but the big guns are making exponential progress because money perpetuates success."

Nantes is an infamous venue for an old team-mate of Jones. Buck Shelford had hit scrotum split open at a test match there in 1986. Samoa's manhood after yesterday's match is still intact. For 70 minutes they looked as if they might pull of a rare upset. But the end result had an air of inevitability to it. The Samoans were playing on empty. Have been, in a figurative sense for too long.

There's no doubt about it in my mind. Samoan rugby has been emasculated by circumstances outside its control. And that is a crying shame.  Fairfax Media