Scotland v Samoa is Rugby World Cup 'big one' - David Denton

Denton has started in two of Scotland's three Pool B matches

Scotland number eight David Denton is relishing the prospect of the "massive" World Cup meeting with Samoa.

A win against the Pacific Islanders, who are already eliminated, at St James' Park on Saturday will take the Scots through to the quarter-finals.

"This is the match that has been billed from the start of the tournament as the big one," said Denton.

"For most of the players it's going to be the biggest game of our careers - effectively a play-off."

Samoa are unable to progress having lost to South Africa and Japan after their opening win over USA.

They may have nothing to play for but Denton insists Scotland will be on their guard against a team notorious for big-hitting tackles.

"We know it is going to be a massive Test match," said the Zimbabwe-born 25-year-old.

"The Samoans are not going to switch off and take it for granted. We know they will be coming here to win.

"But we've been cast as favourites for our first two games and we've dealt with it quite well, playing intelligent rugby early then going on and scoring lots of tries."

Samoa are known for their tough tackling

Scotland picked up bonus-point wins over Japan and USA before coming up short against South Africa's power last weekend.

In each outing Vern Cotter's side have started slowly, with all 11 tries scored so far coming after the interval.

"We have got to stop them getting out of the blocks," added Denton.

"It was certainly a good performance by the Springboks who came and imposed their game on us, but from now on it has got to be the other way round - we have got to impose ourselves on Samoa."