England 18-17 Samoa: England sneak narrow win in final Rugby World Cup pool game

Danny Care scores for England — Care’s try proved decisive as England maintained their 100% record from the pool stage

England: (8) 18
Tries: Chessum, Care Pens: Farrell 2 Cons: Farrell
Samoa (14) 17
Tries: Ah Wong 2 Pens: Sopoaga Cons: Sopoaga

A sluggish England outlasted a bruising, brilliant Samoa performance to head to the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals with a full house of Pool D wins.

Danny Care’s 73rd-minute dart from the base of a scrum was the decisive score in an 18-17 victory.

However, his team’s credentials as possible contenders for the title will have been badly dented as they were pushed all the way by a team whose only previous tournament win came against Chile.

The underdogs led 17-8 early in the second half and could have been further clear, having seen a third try ruled out for the faintest of knock-ons.

Samoa could yet have snatched a sucker-punch victory as they swept upfield only to spill forward five metres short in the penultimate play of the game.

England finished the game with a 100% record from their first four games, while their captain Owen Farrell surpassed Jonny Wilkinson as the leading Test points scorer for his country.

But there was more concern than confidence to take from the game with more Pacific Island opposition, in the shape of Fiji, looming in next weekend’s quarter-finals.

England fast need to find an antidote to a game of off-loads, invention and commitment that very nearly caused the biggest upset of France 2023 so far.

Samoa twist script to push England all the way

Samoa had promised to ‘gift’ Manu Tuilagi, a son of their shores, with some homegrown physicality in their first meeting of his 56-cap England career.

Instead Tuilagi helped himself to the highest number of attacking metres of any players in the first quarter.

He ploughed into midfield contact off England’s first piece of possession, cantered clear to put a galloping Ollie Chessum into the corner for the first try and punched over the gainline with regularity.

With Farrell kicking his record-breaking penalty to put England 8-0 up, all seemed to be going as planned for coach Steve Borthwick.

Then Samoa twisted the script. If they had not delivered their gifts for Tuilagi, a second pre-match vow – to play in an “unapologetically Samoan” way – was realised in some style.

A series of quicksilver phases was capped with Steven Luatua and Tumua Manu’s deft hands putting Nigel Ah Wong into the corner.

Five minutes later he was over again, gathering and dotting down former All Black Lima Sopoaga’s raking crossfield kick just before the dead-ball line.

That one-two punch could easily have been followed up with a potential knockout blow as Duncan Paia’Aua pounced on Alex Mitchell’s botched box kick and dived in.

With the conversion already taken referee Andrew Brace, guided by the television match official, belatedly detected a marginal knock-on in the preceding melee to rule out the score. England, on the ropes, were reprieved and made it back to their half-time stool only six points adrift.

The break did nothing to change the momentum, though.

With the local fans singing Allez Les Bleus in support of Samoa, they pummelled away at England.

George Ford was forced into a desperate corner-flagging cover tackle to deny Paia’Aua as he bore down on the line, before Sopoaga knocked over a penalty to put his side 17-8 up and more than a converted score clear.

England chopped and changed in search of a combination that would unlock the Samoan defence.

Marcus Smith came on at full-back with Freddie Steward shifted out to the wing. Ollie Lawrence replaced Tuilagi. Ford was jettisoned.

They came close. Chessum was stopped millimetres short. Marchant was pulled back from under the posts for a forward pass. In a farcical moment, Farrell was timed out by the shot clock as he lined up a straightforward penalty at 17-11 down.

Samoa, spirited and aggressive, were sniffing a first victory over England and one that would arguably outdo their shock wins over Wales in 1991 and 1999.

But, in sight of that landmark, they faltered, falling asleep at the set-piece to allow an alert Care to scamper in and spare England’s blushes.

Pool D standings

‘There are some huge learnings’ – what they said

England head coach Steve Borthwick: “My first thoughts are what a performance for Samoa, I thought they were absolutely incredible. They put us under enormous pressure, that is a huge credit to them.

“For us it was scrappy, we made a lot of errors and there were periods where we didn’t play within our system. That put us under an awful lot of pressure. There are some huge learnings and it was a tough test for next week.”

England captain Owen Farrell: “It was scrappy. It didn’t feel like the best from us but all credit has to go to Samoa, the way they came out and fired shots at us was tough to deal with at times.

“We didn’t deal with it discipline wise, we didn’t deal with it with mistakes at times. I’m glad we found a way back in. I’m glad when we weren’t at our best we found a way to win.”

‘My heart breaks for these boys’

Samoa head coach Seilala Mapusua: “That was a tough one. If I’m being honest, my heart breaks for these boys. I thought they deserved a lot more. We did enough to earn victory. Such is the cruel nature of sport, it wasn’t to be.”

“If we nailed one of those two disallowed tries, I think that would have been massive in terms of momentum… and losing a player to the bin didn’t help our cause. When you’re defending for that long in your own 22, something’s got to give.”