Danny Care saves England from first ever loss to Samoa
England were forced to dig deep in an 18-17 victory over Samoa that will have left probable World Cup quarter-final opponents Fiji licking their lips.
A dominant final quarter saw Samoa’s 17-8 lead eventually overhauled when Danny Care crossed with seven minutes left for a try that was converted by Owen Farrell.
It was a night of personal triumph for Farrell, who eclipsed Jonny Wilkinson’s total of 1,179 to become the nation’s highest points scorer, but a poor team performance will have taken the shine off that achievement.
Samoa finally discovered their mojo in the climax to a disappointing group campaign and they fell metres short with one last do-or-die assault that if successful would have produced a first-ever victory in the fixture.
A lingering sense of injustice hung over an early decision – made once the conversion had been taken – to chalk off Duncan Paia’aua’s try for a hard-to-detect knock-on that would have propelled the underdogs 19-8 ahead.
Until this night in Lille, England had not conceded a try for 160 minutes but they were breached twice by Samoa wing Nigel Ah-Wong – and it could have been more.
Their only consistent weapon was the driving line-out and Fiji will have watched the events at Stade Pierre-Mauroy with interest, seeing how rattled Steve Borthwick’s side became when faced with an incisive, off-loading attack.
England’s pack made an early impact but it was the sharp handling of Farrell and Joe Marchant that led to their first try in the 10th minute as Manu Tuilagi motored forwards before sending Ollie Chessum over in the left corner.
Tuilagi tore through the midfield once again as Samoa continued to be picked apart at will with George Ford and Farrell dovetailing well and their next drive ended with a penalty from their captain that saw Wilkinson’s record finally broken.
Play became ragged and England suffered as a result, their sloppy handling allowing Samoa to attack and the Islanders showed skill to thread the ball to wing Ah-Wong for a classy try.
Blue shirts poured through gaps in the favourites’ porous defence and they were unpicked again when Lima Sopoaga hoisted a crossfield kick for Ah-Wong to produce an inch-perfect finish.
Nothing seemed to be going right for England as they infringed at a line-out but they enjoyed a stroke of luck when Paia’aua’s score off Alex Mitchell’s poor clearance kick was disallowed.
A sloppy Farrell pass intended for Tuilagi invited more pressure and after going through several phases in which the tryline was tested Samoa ended the spell with a Sopoaga penalty.
England were losing every moment and they chose to play their trump card by bringing on Marcus Smith at Ford’s expense with Farrell moving to fly-half.
They appeared to have scored when their pack dragged Samoa into the trenches but Chessum’s try was ruled out and then Marchant was denied because of a forward pass.
Farrell landed one penalty but the shot clock expired on a second attempt and England were thrown a lifeline when Tumua Manu was shown a yellow card for tackling Farrell in the air.
Pinned back by scrum after scrum, Samoa eventually cracked when replacement scrum-half Care raced through a large gap and once Farrell converted England were back in front.
A last-gasp attack by Samoa almost swept them over but excellent scramble defence kept them out and the dream of an upset was extinguished.
Comments on RugbyPass
Just came back from the game and the atmosphere was amazing. Players stayed afterwards for more than a hour to sign stuff and take photos with fans. Great day out.
5 Go to commentsA great game. The Sharks without Etsebeth are a shadow of the team compared to when he plays. The limitations of Some of the expensive Sharks players are being exposed. Credit to Clermont for some exhilaration play at times.
5 Go to comments100% Mr Owens. But who would want to be a referee.? It must be the most difficult job on earth.
1 Go to commentsStarts to be overdone and oversold this systematic SA narrative…which nevertheless has the merit in this case to recognise blatant refereeing mistakes in their favor
5 Go to commentsNice article. Shades of Steinbeck. They can win the final if they take the game seriously; but only if they take it seriously.
5 Go to commentsWhat a sad way to end a glittering career. Somebody should tell him to delete his social media accounts and face the consequences of what he's done. Then he should slip away quietly into obscurity. This isn't likely to happen, something tells me he'll be back in The Sun / Daily Mail sooner rather than later.
3 Go to commentsguys its fine! he understands why he did what he did and has taken accountability for it; why should he have to be accountable to a court? after all he did was abuse people in person - its not as if he was engaging in _online_ abuse!
3 Go to commentsChiefs flanker Kaylum Boshier yellow-carded for collapsing the scrum as it rolled towards the line. It was a maul….
1 Go to commentsyou know, i’m a leinster fan so I want Northampton to lose and it is gonna be tuff with Cortney lawes, Alex michell and the other guys🏉 lets go leinster🏉
1 Go to commentsWelcome to the Pro ranks. Those hard teams of old do hit the sole better though. its a dog fight at the top.
6 Go to commentsCan someone fill me in please, I've read a number of Ben Smith articles now and it seems he's got something again South Africa? Surely, this game was over and done with 7 months ago. Can't we have something a bit more interesting and relevant, or is this the calibre of journalist on this site?
228 Go to commentsNot sure what the Welsh are moaning about. They’ve had far more players off England, than England have had off Wales. Guys like Josh Hathaway and Kane James will play for Wales in the end. And they’ll be fsr better players for having played in the Gallagher Premiership, than they ever would have been had they stayed mired in the shambles that is Welsh rugby.
4 Go to commentsThis is all being blown totally out of proportion. First of all, since half the Irish team isn’t Irish - it’s very likely that none of the Irish players said that at all and, thus, we’re not being arrogant. Second, since half the Irish team is Kiwi - it’s very likely the Kiwi players were predicting a NZ SA World Cup final. Which they got spot on. Good on them!
163 Go to commentsAha. An Irishman with logic! Follow the flow: - Ireland peaks with a >80% win record between 2020 and 2023. And then… - crashes out of another QF at the WC; - Beat a poor French Team; - Beat 6N wooden spoonists Italy; - Play shite against eventual wooden spoonists Wales; - Lose against the most boring, “the worst English team ever” , a team widely regarded as unable to attack; - scrape through against Scotland. This article, No - Trimble, is on the money! Except for one glaring statement: _The Springboks have a few aces in the hole in this debate being the reigning world champions and official world number ones_ There is no debate, boys and girls. There it is. In black and white. “Reigning World Champions and OFFICIAL world number ones”. Come July, the overrated Andy Farrell and this overhyped team are going to enter into a world of hurt.
90 Go to commentsI’d like to know what homoerotic events Daniel enjoyed at 8th man. I clearly missed out!
19 Go to commentsThis article is missing some detail, like some actual context or info about what led to him abusing the ref.
2 Go to comments*They used to say that football is a gentleman sport watched by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan sport watched by gentlemen. How times have changed.*
3 Go to commentsexcept ot wasnt late wasnt late at all so dont know why you all saying its late he commits early and its your fault fir not paying attention
30 Go to commentsNot sure the Bulls need another average utility back in their ranks. Chamberlain has been ok for the Sharks but is by no means an X-Factor player. Bulls bought several utility backs which they barely use. A typical example would be Henry Immelman who plays mostly Fullback. The Bulls however have rarely played him this year and he has played wing or centre. Bulls want to build depth but seems like they have too many surplus players
1 Go to commentsABs lost against a side playing without a hooker - The guy playing, had one shoulder. Line outs were a gimme for the ABs, and the last 8 minutes 14 played 14 against a team that had been smashed 3 weeks in a row… Yet with all that possession, with all that territory, with all the advantages they actually had, especially in the last 8 minutes, they couldn’t buy a point. Those last 8 minutes determined if they outplayed the Boks or not. History will show that the Boks completely outplayed the ABs, especially in those last 8 minutes, the business end of any rugby match
228 Go to comments