RWC 2015: What now for Scotland?

After beating Samoa top seal a spot in the quarter finals, Scotland will look to make it past the last eight of the Rugby World Cup for the first time since 1991 when they take on either Wales or Australia next Saturday

Greig Laidlaw celebrates after Scotland secure a spot in the quarter finals with a hard-fought win over Samoa (gettyimages)

Scotland secured their spot in the quarter finals of the Rugby World Cup with a hard-fought win over a spirited Samoan side at St James Park.

Despite conceding four tries, first-half scores from Tommy Seymour and John Hardie and 26 points from captain Greig Laidlaw proved enough for Scotland to claim their third win of the tournament and qualify for the knock out stages of the competition, for the first time since 2007.

The win means they will finish as runners up in Pool B and are now set to take on the winners of Pool A, which will be either Australia or Wales.

The Wallabies will battle it out for top spot against Warren Gatland's side today and the victor will meet Scotland in the quarter finals on Saturday,17 October at Twickenham.

Whichever side prevails, Scotland will go into the game as underdogs as they have poor records against both teams and have not made it past the last eight of the competition since 1991, when they went onto lose 9-6 to England in the semi finals.

The Scots have not beaten Wales since February 2007 and have only overcome the Aussies three times in the last 33 years, however, two of those victories did come in their last three meetings with the Australians.

But although both Scotland's potential quarter final opponents have been impressive in the opening games of their World Cup campaings, neither have looked unbeatable and in a competition that has already produced several upsets, Vern Cotter's side will remain quietly confident.

But while Scotland were always favourites to progress from Pool B, few expect them to make it much further in the compeition.

They were 200-1 to win the World Cup before the tournament began and althought the odds are slightly shorter now, they are still rank outsiders to lift the Webb Ellis trophy for the first time.