Samoa coach Stephen Betham felt particularly bad for the people watching back home after his side lost to Japan 26-5 at the Rugby World Cup on Saturday.
With good reason, for his side's poor discipline smoothed the path for Japan.
Their Pool B match looked one-sided from the outset, and became worse from the moment referee Craig Joubert handed out yellow cards in quick succession, to No. 8 Faifili Levave for a shoulder barge, and to prop Sakaria Taulafo for conceding two defensive penalties in two minutes.
There were only 19 minutes on the clock and Japan already had a two-man advantage.
"We feel very bad for the way we performed today," Betham said. "I know the people will be disappointed but we have one more game, and we need to finish on a high if we can. Discipline right from the start cost us, and we couldn't get on the front foot from that."
Flyhalf Tusi Pisi echoed those sentiments.
"I thought our discipline was going to be great but ... we let ourselves down," he said.
Samoa's campaign started brightly enough with a 25-16 win against the United States, but last weekend's 46-6 loss to South Africa took that momentum away, and the Samoans looked off the pace against Japan, and kept dropping passes.
They conceded 17 penalties (to four), gave Japan 11 scrums (to four), and gave away nine turnovers.
They lie fourth in the pool and, if they don't finish third after their last pool game against Scotland next Saturday, will have to go through qualifying for the 2019 Cup in Japan.
"We came up short. We came out with a certain gameplan, and it didn't work out the way we planned it," Betham said.
"Japan play a very fast-tempo game, and credit to them, they came out on top. They didn't surprise us.
"They've caught up with the rest of the world and we have a lot to work on."
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.