LILLE, France — “Allez les Bleus” rang out from the Lille crowd as Samoa chased a late try against England. Few could have complained had Samoa won this match, but England had substitute Danny Care to thank for the 18-17 victory.
Samoa played with ambition and intensity, while England looked passive with a performance littered with errors.
But in this never-ending World Cup, England won; Steve Borthwick’s side are four from four in the pool stages and are favourites to make the semifinals. It’s a strange old tournament.
All this on the day Owen Farrell broke the all-time England scoring record as he overtook Jonny Wilkinson’s tally of 1179 points with a first-half penalty. But it will also be remembered for the bizarre moment he was outdone by the timer on a second-half kick. “That’s not good enough — I’m glad for the team’s sake it didn’t cost us,” Farrell said afterwards. “Hopefully it won’t happen again.”
It was he who put the finishing touches on this by booting the ball into the crowd, a kick met with as many boos from those vying for the underdogs as it was relieved cheers from the thousands of England fans who made trip across the Channel.
The pre-match narrative from an England perspective was dominated by the reunion of Farrell and George Ford in the same backline. The two interchanged mid-match at fly-half and inside centre — showing the positional versatility Borthwick values — and it was Farrell who had a say in Ollie Chessum’s ninth-minute try as he helped tee up the breakaway move. But in reality, it’s difficult to say whether it was a success or not given England had so little of the ball. Ford saved a Samoa try as he tracked back in the 43rd minute with a last-gasp tackle on Duncan Paia’aua, but it was just one part of the England machine that failed to click.
England’s main weapon was the lineout drive, and they needed the bench to change momentum in the second-half of the match. Ford was hooked after 50 minutes, Farrell moved to 10, Joe Marchant was off the wing and into the centres and Marcus Smith to fullback. Smith brought some urgency and upped the tempo in England’s play, but it was introduction of Care in the 66th minute which proved to be the difference.
Care’s been there since 2008 and at times thought his England days would be over. But he’s still there, sniping at the back of the ruck and it was a textbook Care try in the 73rd minute that proved to be the difference as he darted around the scrum and dotted down unmarked under the posts. That gave England the winning platform, and he preserved it late on with a try-saving tackle. Samoa looked like they were going to secure a deserved victory as Nerai Fomai sprinted away, but Care’s flick on Fomai his ankle prevented it and from there England closed it out.
But this was an uncharacteristic England performance, light years away from the accuracy we saw against Argentina in their pool opener. England coughed up the ball 16 times while the play looked telegraph at times, and Samoa picked up on it, jamming up on England and then counter-attacking. Steve Borthwick said afterwards it was a “tough test” but a “scrappy performance.” He also said there were “loads of things not at required standard.”
He will look to the positives of the situation yet know full well how close England came to losing this. “What we’re seeing now is a team that finds a way through games, navigates the way through situations which has been an often criticised element of this team. “I see a team that finds a way,” Borthwick said. “I see a team that never stops. Have we got to be better? Yes, without question, we want to be better.”
But the lingering memories will be around Samoa and how close they came to securing a historic victory. “That was a tough one, a bit lost for words,” Samoa coach Seilala Mapusua said. “My heart breaks for these boys. I thought they deserved a lot more than they got from this game. I felt we did enough to earn a victory, such is the cruel nature of our sport, it wasn’t to be.”
Mapusua is right. Samoa had two tries disallowed — one where they were rightly judged to be in charge, but the other in the 32nd minute was a harsh call by Andrew Brace where he went back and disallowed Duncan Paia’aua’s try.
They pushed and pulled England to their maximum but in the end, they were left in that horrible place of heroic losers. England march on to Marseille in the quarterfinals, but Samoa will be left to rue what could have been.
“Proud is an understatement in terms of what I think of our performance,” Mapusua said. “We were dominant in most facets of the game. I thought it was a great battle in the set piece. In terms of open field we were able to expose some space, especially in the wider channels. I’m very proud of how we asserted our game and stopped England’s game for about 70 minutes.”