Wane pain as the party turns sour

Coach in tears after cup exit

England 26

Samoa 27

A GOLDEN point and a silver dagger through English hearts. What a brutal way for the hosts to be sent packing from their own party. But how did it ever come to this?

It was merely a month ago that England smashed Samoa 60-6 in their first match of the tournament. This time the Samoans had not read the script. They were a different side to the one that rolled over at St James’ Park and they stunned the home favourites.

Matt Parish’s men should really have won the game in normal time when they led by six points with two minutes to go.

As it was, Herbie Farnworth gave England hope with a late try, which was converted by Tommy Makinson to send this extraordinary semi into extra-time.

But a forward pass by captain Sam Tomkins gave Samoa crucial possession in the golden-point period. And Stephen Crichton kicked the critical drop goal — to go with his two tries and three goals in the 80 minutes — to send Samoa into their first ever World Cup final. ‘I’m gutted, absolutely wounded,’ said head coach Shaun Wane, who broke down in tears in his press conference.

‘We were just not good enough on the biggest stage you could imagine. We didn’t do the right things at the right time and I blame myself.

‘We were below our standards. There is some soul-searching going on from us staff.’

In front of 40,489 fans at Arsenal, the writing was on the wall for England when Tim Lafai skipped round his Salford team-mate Kallum Watkins to cross after just six minutes.

It was the first time the hosts had been behind in the whole tournament. They went ahead in the 25th minute when George Williams danced between two tackles with a dummy, before offloading to Elliott Whitehead to touch down. But if England were breathing a sigh of relief, it was shortlived, as Ligi Sao sold Watkins with a dummy to slide over and, with Crichton adding the extras, Samoa held a deserved 10-6 lead at the break.

England hit back at the start of the second half when Williams’s kick was dropped by Lafai, with John Bateman then capitalising on the loose ball.

Yet Samoa responded with one of the tries of the tournament. Their captain Junior Paulo flicked the ball back off the turf before Jarome Luai punched the ball on to Crichton to cross. They then extended their advantage to two scores for the first time when Luai found Lafai to go over in the left corner.

England were on the ropes but fought back in the 64th minute when Farnworth showed great strength to wrestle off three Samoans and get over the line. Makinson converted and then he levelled with a penalty after Paulo took out his opposite captain Tomkins off the ball.

There was to be another sting in the tail when Victor Radley’s pass was intercepted by Crichton, who ran 60 metres to score. Yet just when England looked down and out, Williams broke the line with more magic, then passed to Farnworth to race clear and finish.

Makinson made no mistake with the conversion to send the semi into golden point. But Tomkins’s error led to Crichton creating history for his country — and leaving England licking their wounds.

ENGLAND: Tomkins 5, Young 4.5, Watkins 4, Farnworth 7.5, Makinson 7, Welsby 4.5, Williams 7, Burgess 6, McIlorum 5, Hill 6, Whitehead 7, Bateman 6.5, Radley 5.5. Interchanges: McMeeken 6, Knowles 6.5, Thompson 6, Cooper 5.

Referee: G Sutton (Australia) 7