England had been compelled to dig deep, coming from behind to beat Samoa in Lille and end high of Pool D on the Rugby World Cup.

England edged Samoa 18-17 on Saturday after trailing by 9 factors with half an hour to play.

The 2003 winners had been already assured high spot in Pool D earlier than kick-off and wanted Danny Care’s late attempt to beat the Pacific Islanders, who had been already knocked out.

England captain Owen Farrell kicked two penalties and a conversion in Lille as he broke Jonny Wilkinson’s factors document for the nation earlier than subsequent Sunday’s quarter-final with, in all chance, Fiji.

England head coach Steve Borthwick began Farrell at centre outdoors flyhalf George Ford as he appeared so as to add some creativity to his facet’s play after profitable their opening three World Cup video games.

Borthwick’s Samoa counterpart Seilala Mapusua modified his complete entrance 5 from final week’s loss to Japan, eyeing an surprising maiden victory over the facet eight locations above them on this planet rankings.

The 1000’s of travelling English followers sang ‘Swing Low Candy Chariot’ in an try and distract Samoa’s gamers earlier than their Sivu Tau pre-game struggle dance, setting the tone for an exhilarating encounter.

England opened the scoring after simply 10 minutes as Manu Tuilagi, going through his nation of beginning, set-up lock Ollie Chessum earlier than Farrell missed his first probability to overhaul Wilkinson’s tally.

The rating remained 5-0 after 1 / 4 of an hour after ex-All Black Lima Sopoaga missed a straight-forward penalty, having been compelled to vary his decade-old kicking tee after dropping it after September’s victory over Chile.

Farrell, 31, then surpassed Wilkinson’s England tally of 1,179 factors with a penalty earlier than the Pacific Islanders proved what Mapusua meant by wanting his facet to be “unapologetically Samoan” earlier within the week.

Right here is the second Owen Farrell turned England’s all-time document factors scorer 💪#RWC2023 | #ENGvSAM pic.twitter.com/bg4zXr6gcR

— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 7, 2023

By the half-hour mark, the Samoans had been in entrance and in management,  combining energy and ability as winger Nigel Ah Wong crossed twice, his second coming from an inch-perfect cross-kick by centre Danny Toala.

Rugby from the heavens 🪄

Samoa lead 14-8 at half time thanks to 2 tries from Nigel Ah-Wong!#RWC2023 | #ENGvSAM pic.twitter.com/EDs5F6IaRQ

— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 7, 2023

On-fire Samoa had been denied a 3rd strive as the tv match official had noticed a Tumua Manu knock-on within the build-up to Duncan Paia’aua’s effort regardless of Andrew Brace awarding it on the sphere, a lot to the disgust of the native French followers who had been supporting the Pacific Islanders.

England had been shell-shocked and their incapacity to cope with Samoa’s depth was highlighted by Farrell’s pointless knock-on seconds earlier than the half-time whistle with the rating at 14-8.

Samoa continued to dominate after the break with Paia’aua solely stopped from scoring with a last-ditch George Ford sort out 10m from the England line.

Native followers shouted the French chant “Allez Les Bleus” which struck a tone with the Samoans, who had been taking part in in blue, earlier than a Sopoaga penalty prolonged the benefit to 17-8 with half an hour to play.

England had been additionally denied tries by the TMO after Chessum’s double-movement and Maro Itoje’s ahead go for Joe Marchant as Borthwick’s facet slowly got here again into the competition.

With 1 / 4 of the sport left Samoa’s lead was simply six factors after Farrell slotted a penalty following an off the ball sort out on him by Toala.

Farrell then wasted an opportunity to chop Samoa’s benefit even additional as he took longer than the allowed 60 seconds to take a penalty, including to the stress of the ultimate quarter of an hour.

England had been camped in Samoa’s 22m, and had the ascendancy at scrum-time with the Pacific Islanders’ centre Manu yellow-carded for taking out Farrell within the air.

The stress instructed with seven minutes to go as alternative scrumhalf Danny Care strolled over from a scrum earlier than Farrell’s conversion claimed the victory.

Match-winning 💪

Danny Care crosses to push England forward within the last rating of the sport!#RWC2023 | #ENGvSAM pic.twitter.com/wiGWpDrglx

— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) October 7, 2023

Samoa nonetheless had time to assert a win however Alamanda Motuga did not catch Neria Fomai’s offload metres from the England tryline with 90 seconds to go.

Farrell then kicked the ball useless, with boos ringing round Stade Pierre-Mauroy, leaving Samoa’s Pacific Island neighbours ready eagerly for subsequent weekend’s last-eight tie in Marseille.

© Agence France-Presse