England have continued their advance towards the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals by toppling Japan 34-12 but a messy performance that came alive in the the second half will have done little to worry the tournament’s heavyweights.
Lewis Ludlam, Courtney Lawes, Freddie Steward and Joe Marchant touched down and it was only when their fullback had collected a George Ford chip and stormed over in the 67th minute that they looked comfortable.
Lawes’ try came after the ball had taken a comical bounce off Joe Marler’s head and while England celebrated their first World Cup tries since their 2019 semi-final victory over New Zealand, a madcap Sunday evening in Nice posed fresh questions.
Early in the second half they were booed by their own fans as they continued to kick the ball away at every opportunity, only to then throw the kitchen sink at enterprising opponents ranked 14th in the world.
The ambition paid off and with Ben Earl and Steward propelling them forward as well as impetus coming from Marcus Smith’s arrival off the bench, they stormed out of sight.
After routing Argentina 27-14 with 14 men in their Pool D opener, they at least avoided a potential banana skin and with fixtures against Chile and Samoa to come, they are destined to reach the last eight.
It took England half an hour to fire their first shots, launching Manu Tuilagi in midfield and Earl into the wall of red and white shirts, but until then they had displayed little endeavour.
Half-backs Ford, who booted 14 points, and Alex Mitchell seemed content to continuously kick the ball away, perhaps convinced that the humid conditions meant it was wiser to wait for Japan to make a mistake.
That is exactly what happened in the 25th minute when Ford steered a clever chip into the left corner and the underdogs botched the line-out, enabling Ludlam to pounce from short range.
Japan fullback Semisi Masirewa had been lost to an innocuous injury in the eighth minute but with Rikiya Matsuda kicking three penalties, they trailed just 13-9 at the interval.
The second half started at a ferocious pace, but the ball continued to slip out of the hands of players from both sides.
England’s first instinct remained to kick, with Mitchell drawing boos when he booted the ball dead, but they were at least pinning Japan back in their own half and showing signs of building momentum.
Tension mounted as the Brave Blossoms escaped their own territory and claimed three more points from Matsuda, but when Earl went tearing down the right wing and the ball was recycled for Lawes to collect and score, their chances seemed to be fading.
Play swung from end to end and suddenly England were scrambling furiously, but Japan missed their chance and were made to pay when Steward caught Ford’s kick and strolled over. Marchant delivered the final blow in the closing moments.
Wales are already preparing for the Eddie Jones show as they start their preparations for next week’s pool C clash in Lyon.
Wales played their second match – a laboured win over Portugal, 24 hours before the Wallabies went out against Fiji in St Etienne and were able to relax and watch their top pool rivals go head-to-head.
The match up between the Wallabies and Wales also pits two of the world’s greatest coaches against each other with Jones up against Warren Gatland.
On Sunday, as the team rested, Wales assistant coach Jonathan Humphreys was asked about the Wallabies’ Eddie Jones factor.
“It will be interesting to see how they come out. He’s always got something different in his game. But Eddie is not playing in the game. The players he has available to him right now are a hell of a squad,” Humphreys said.
“It’s going to be as hell of a game. There’s going to be a lot riding on that. I thought Australia were excellent in the first game.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
“We have got an eight-day turnaround so hopefully we will have a full squad to choose from. A few boys have rested up after a tough Fiji game.
“It was always going to be a massive game.”
Wales fielded a much-changed team and did enough against Portugal, although needed a stoppage-time try to go to the maximum 10 points after beating Fiji with a bonus point in their opening game.
“Relief, happy. We are delighted to get 10 points from the first two games. If you had offered that to us before we came out here, we would have taken your hand off,” said Humphreys.
“There were a lot of boys who hadn’t played for a while, we made a lot of changes. It was great that we got a bonus-point, and they’ve also got a fair bit of game-time.
“We are pretty delighted with that. We made a load of changes to give boys game-time and also to put them in position to go for selection against Australia. To get the bonus-point in the manner that we did right at the end showed the resilience and trying to find a way to win.”
South Africa halfback Cobus Reinach and wing Makazole Mapimpi have scored a hat-trick of tries each as their side cruised to a 76-0 Rugby World Cup win over Romania and in the process tried out several of their squad experiments.
The Springboks had secured their bonus point within 12 minutes as they overwhelmed Romania with a fast start, before the heavens opened and the rain made for more challenging conditions on Sunday (Monday AEST).
As expected, they were dominant in all facets of the game and while Uruguay and Portugal have provided a stern test for tier-one nations at this World Cup, Romania are simply not at the same level, having also lost their opener 82-8 to Ireland.
The Boks meet Ireland next in their third pool B game in Paris on Saturday, which will be a huge step up in quality but also see a return of their first-choice players to the starting XV.
They ran in 12 tries in all with further scores for flyhalf Damian Willemse, hooker Deon Fourie, wing Grant Williams (two), fullback Willie le Roux and a penalty score in what became a box-ticking exercise after the first quarter of the game.
“I’m especially happy with a couple of things we tried,” Bok coach Jacques Nienaber said. “The three different hookers that we used, I thought that paid off.
“Then Faf (de Klerk) got some exposure at flyhalf so I thought a lot of things that we wanted to get out of the game, we got.”
Hordes of Springboks fans gathered outside the Stade de Bordeaux before the match in their green jerseys, several sporting nothing but shoes and swimming trunks with the South Africa flag on in homage to famous images of de Klerk after their 2019 World Cup win.
In contrast, there were only a scattering of Romania fans.
Beaten 21-8 in their previous World Cup meeting with the Boks in 1995, Romania were always going to be up against it but did not help themselves with a tentative start.
They were weak in the tackle and left too much space for their opponents to play as South Africa picked off their errors with four tries in the opening 12 minutes.
The Boks dominated the breakdown, winning 12 turnovers in the match, but the scoring slowed when a deluge of rain fell midway through the first half as they led 33-0 at the interval.
Fourie came on at the break for his first appearance at hooker since 2018 and acquitted himself well in the absence of the injured Malcolm Marx, before flanker Marco van Staden was given a run in the front row as well.
First-choice halfback De Klerk came on at five-eighth after 55 minutes but his lack of accuracy off the kicking tee may hasten calls for Handre Pollard to come into the squad as the replacement for Marx, who is out of the tournament.
“We had the first 25 minutes in the Irish game and today the last 20 minutes of the first half, we can take some positives,” Romania coach Eugen Apjok said. “We need to learn a lot about how to manage, especially in the breakdown.”
Former England player Andy Goode has hit out at the officiating at the Rugby World Cup after Portugal’s Vincent Pinto received a red card for his inadvertent kick in the face of Wales winger Josh Adams.
Pinto jumped to catch a high ball in the closing minutes of Wales’ 28-8 win but lost his balance and his studs caught the onrushing Adams.
Referee Karl Dickson sent the incident upstairs to TMO Marius Jonker. Pinto was yellow carded and the card was upgraded to red on review – Pinto looked distraught on the Portugal bench.
“Horrific decision to give a yellow card for Pinto for that foot to the head, he’s falling backwards and over as he’s caught the ball! Simple physics! What the f–k?!” Goode wrote on X.
After the upgrade he fumed: “Worst decision I’ve ever seen to give a red card to Pinto after the bunker review. He’s falling backwards and lost balance whilst looking the other way! What the actual f–k?!”
“Some garbage decisions and inconsistencies this weekend with [Ethan] De Groot’s red and [Romain] Taofifenua’s yellow but that red for Pinto tops the lot!”
Former England No.8 Nick Easter added: “Sack the bunker review off. They can’t get it right, complete incompetence and lack of understanding for the game. 2 prerequisites for being in the job I would have thought.”
Portugal head coach Patrice Lagisquet was frustrated by the decision.
“He loses his balance in the air and can get very hurt. It can land on your head,” he said.
“That he takes a red [card] bothers me a little. We saw clear obstructions elsewhere. The fourth official blocked us from changing on the sidelines several times, it’s unacceptable.”
Former England captain Dylan Hartley has revealed that he has been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.
THartley told the Daily Mail that he received his diagnosis nearly a year ago, with scans revealing that parts of his brain had gone to sleep after repeated blows to the head. He noticed he was stumbling over words and dropping things more in his retirement.
“I never wanted to get a scan because I didn’t want to know the truth,” Hartletold MailOnline. “I’d started to stutter and mix my words, dropping things and struggling when my kids made certain noises. I was confronting the monster under the bed, in a way.”
After scans revealed that his head had “been through a pretty tough time”, Hartley was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome, a term he believes “lessens the blow” and should be referred to as a traumatic brain injury.
“I don’t want to say I had areas of brain that were dead, but they were asleep,” he said. “They were dormant. The hardest thing in life is usually the right thing to do. The easy thing is to ignore things. I took the hard path, went and got the scan and I’m so happy I did.
Wales coach Warren Gatland wants to see the World Cup expanded to 24 teams after the performance of smaller nations.
“I thought Uruguay were outstanding – it is brilliant for the game,” Gatland said, reflecting on the South Americans’ battle with France.
“Portugal were fantastic and showed a lot of enterprise, and you could argue that Uruguay were pretty unlucky in a few situations (against France).
“I think it is important that we continue to develop from a rugby perspective to help develop these tier two nations.
“I think it’s a real positive going forward to see teams competing and pushing other teams close
“There might be a situation where we can increase the number of teams in the World Cup to 24, and that would continue to help grow the game.
“That is an important aspect. You don’t want top tier nations dominating, you want upsets – as long as I am not a part of it!
“I think it’s a real positive going forward to see teams competing and pushing other teams close.”
An increase to 24 teams is likely to happen in time for the 2027 World Cup in Australia, although it might be delayed until four years after that.
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