Samoa head coach Vaeluaga Steve Jackson says his team will be spurred on by a sense of injustice when they take-on Scotland in today's World Cup do-or-die clash at the Kobe Misaka Stadium.

The Pacific Islanders lost two key players in hooker Motu Matu’u and centre Rey Lee-Lo to suspension earlier this week following dangerous tackles during their team’s tournament opener against Russia on Tuesday, and Jackson says they were harshly treated. In his view, French referee Romain Poite’s on-field response of a yellow card for both offences was sufficient punishment.

“I’d be lying if said it hasn’t had any impact, it certainly has emotionally, with the two players that had to go through what they’ve been through, and obviously we’ve not just had to try to pick them up but also to pick us up as a group,” said Jackson.

“It’s certainly been a motivation for us to go out there as a group and do a job on Monday. There’s obviously been a lot in the press, people making things a little bit worse than what they already were before the hearing.”

Jackson stressed that he thinks his players have been harshly treated when compared to the punishment meted out to USA flanker John Quill following his red-carded challenge on England’s Owen Farrell on Thursday.

“If you look at the USA tackle and our two tackles, (they are) completely different, but exactly the same outcome – and he admitted it,” said the New Zealand-born coach. “We’ve been given (bans of) the same amount of time, but a completely different tackle to another person.

“In terms of the way they [the two banned Samoan players] went at the tackle, they were both bent at the hips, and the other thing to take into consideration is how far the attacking player dropped, that’s a grey area.” he added.

“It is extremely hard, you’ve got a split second to make the decision and in the case of these two they were actually bent over, arms forward and the collision might have been a tough one so we accept the ban. But do we agree with it? No.

“There was four experienced officials on the field and at the end of the day we think they made the right decision, plus everyone got up with no injuries. But we move on.”

Jackson added that Scotland scrum-half Greig Laidlaw’s call for today's referee Pascal Gauzere to keep an eye on Samoan tackling has played into his hands as he tries to motivate the team for the match

“There have been things put in the media by people in the Scottish squad talking to the referee about our tackles and that sort of stuff, well, thanks for doing that, because it just motivates our players a lot more,” he said. “We’re going out there with the same mind-set, the same attitude, the same commitment to the script, and we’ll see what happens.”

Samoa have long held a reputation as ferocious tacklers who have a tendency to fly in high and recklessly on occasion, and that part of their game has been put under the microscope at this World Cup after a statement from World Rugby – the game’s governing body – reveals that the match officials themselves wanted to tighten up on dangerous challenges following a couple a flash-points during the opening weekend of the tournament.

Jackson asked his assistant coach, Alistair Rogers, to address the question of whether Samoa have an issue here.

“We spend a lot of time on tackle technique, we coach the micro detail of the tackle, and, let’s be clear, as far as the outcome we felt it was dealt with correctly at the time [by Poite],” said Rogers.

“Obviously, the panel thinks differently and that’s very difficult in today’s game because there’s a lot of line speed. However, that’s the current climate so we’ve just got to keep working on that skill.

“I’ve contacted Alain Rolland [former referee and World Rugby’s high performance manager for match officials] and I’m waiting for him to come back to me because, as a defensive coach, it’s paramount for me to know what we can do better.”