England errors spoil march to quarter-finals

Plenty to work on, plenty to work with. england produced their most prolific performance of this World Cup campaign, running in seven tries against a France side already through customs and in the departure lounge.

At times they were cool, clean and clinical, producing long periods of the mistake- free rugby that legendary coach Wayne Bennett craves.

But this was not perfection. Again, there were moments that will have had the Queenslander repeating the expletives his union counterpart and compatriot eddie Jones spat out at twickenham on Saturday.

the bad habits of giving away stupid penalties and dropping the ball are in england’s DnA. Anyone who saw this year’s Super league Grand Final, in which the nation’s best sides treated the ball like a bar of soap, will testify to that.

If Bennett, arguably the greatest coach in the game’s history, can change this mentality it would be his finest achievement.

the raw materials to reach the final and give the Kangaroos a fight are there — and were on display in a near-flawless first half in which tries from Gareth Widdop, Stefan Ratchford and James Graham, all converted by Widdop, put england 18-0 up before 10 minutes had elapsed. Further scores from Mark Percival and John Bateman, before a Benjamin Garcia response, made it 26-6 at the hooter. But following a try for the ever- impressive Jermaine McGillvary (below) moments after the restart, it got sloppier than the KFC gravy advertised on the scoreboard and another score for McGillvary failed to mask 10 second-half errors. ‘It wasn’t good enough in the second half,’ said assistant coach Denis Betts. ‘the coaches are not happy, Wayne is not happy, none of the players are particularly happy. We lacked focus and maybe got overconfident at times. We did a really good job in the first 40 but we played ourselves in the second half.’

A fired-up Papua new Guinea await Bennett’s men in a Melbourne quarter-final next weekend. Following this victory Sam Burgess, injured during the defeat by Australia, vowed he would be back for the first knockout match which, fortunately for england, will not play out in front of a fanatical Port Moresby crowd. ‘I’ll be there,’ he said with a grin.

Should Burgess and england tame the Kumuls, tonga’s victory over new Zealand means they should provide the semi-final opposition.

the door to a final is wide open. It is up to england to walk through it. they have the ability — whether they have the mindset remains to be seen.