England are breathing a sigh of relief after narrowly avoiding a shock upset at the Rugby World Cup. Steve Borthwick’s side squeezed past Samoa 18-17 in Lille on Saturday courtesy of veteran scrum-half Danny Care’s late try off the bench to make it four wins from four to close out Pool D, but the nature of the performance will have set alarm bells ringing ahead of next weekend’s quarter-final test in Marseille - most likely against Fiji.
England started well with lock Ollie Chessum’s early try and Owen Farrell overtaking Jonny Wilkinson as their leading points scorer of all time, but were dominated for much of the first half thereafter as Nigel Ah Wong registered two excellent scores for sensational Samoa, who also had one wiped off the board through Duncan Paia'aua.
England had tries from Joe Marchant and Chessum denied in the second half before substitute Care eventually spared their blushes with a late trademark dart to the line following a short-range scrum, with Farrell nailing the all-important conversion to break Samoan hearts. Follow England vs Samoa reaction live below, with expert analysis from Standard Sport’s Nick Purewal at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy!
