Powerful Aussies oust host England
LONDON— Bernard Foley orchestrated England’s demise at the Rugby World Cup with his finest performance in a Wallabies jersey, scoring all but five of Australia’s points in a 33-13 win Saturday that ensured the host team will exit the tournament after the pool stage.
After losing narrowly last weekend to Wales, England needed to beat two-time champion Australia to maintain a chance of progressing from Pool A, the most difficult group in the draw.
“Absolutely gutted to be going out of the World Cup. Words can’t express how disappointed we are,” England coach Stuart Lancaster said. “We feel we let down our fantastic supporters. It was a tough pool and in hindsight we put ourselves in a bad position losing last week.”
The Aussies exploited the pressure England was under in a must-win, starting at a fast, physical pace.
“The atmosphere was outrageously loud, that’s not an easy thing to deal with,” Wallabies coach Michael Cheika said. “We just wanted to get into it — you have not only got to keep your opponents out of the game, you have to keep the crowd out of the game.”
It started badly for England, with flyhalf Foley crossing for sniping tries in the 20th and 35th minutes, converting them both and adding a penalty to give the Wallabies a 17-3 lead at halftime.
Foley extended the lead to 17 points with a penalty goal soon after the break, before winger Anthony Watson triggered an English resurgence by beating two defenders to score a strong try in the right corner in the 56th. Owen Farrell converted and added a penalty goal to cut the gap to 20-13 but his yellow card in the 71st for a shoulder charge on Matt Giteau left England a man short at the end.
Foley landed two more penalties and converted Giteau’s last-minute try from the sideline to finish with a personal haul of 28 points, and later said it was the best game he’d played.
Wallabies captain Stephen Moore praised the performances of Foley, for directing the backline, back-rowers David Pocock and Michael Hooper for winning turnover ball, and the unheralded Australian scrum that had come under heavy scrutiny in the buildup.
England had won its previous three World Cup matches against Australia, including an extra-time win in the 2003 final in Sydney when Jonny Wilkinson landed a dropped goal to break the deadlock.
And the English were slight favourites, with an 81,000-plus crowd at Twickenham, an expected dominance in the set piece, and immense public support in the days leading up to the match.
But little more than two weeks after starting the tournament with a bonus-point win over Fiji, Lancaster’s team was out of contention regardless of what happens in its last pool game against Uruguay. Australia and Wales will meet next weekend to decide top spot in the pool, with the winner likely to avoid South Africa in the quarter-finals.
In other action Saturday, South Africa continued its recovery from the most stunning result in Rugby World Cup history by beating Scotland 3416, backing up a 40-point win over Samoa last week to go top of Pool B.
Qualification in first place looks likely now for the two-time champions, who play the United States in their last pool match on Wednesday.