Owen Farrell helped boot England into their sixth Rugby World Cup semi-final after surviving an incredible late fightback from Fiji at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille, France on Sunday.
Steve Bortwick’s side appeared to be cruising into the semi-finals at 24-10 ahead deep in the second half but the Pacific Islanders mounted a sensational fightback to level matters with 10 minutes to go before Farrell’s boot rescued England and secured a 30-24 victory.
After a cagey opening 10 minutes, referee Mathieu Raynal handed England the chance to open the scoring in front of the posts after Fiji were penalised for not rolling away and Farrell duly obliged.
Moments later, England went through two phases from the line-out before the dangerous Tuilagi spun away and dived down in the corner for his 20th try for his country and an 8-0 lead after Farrell hit the post with his conversion.
Scrum half Frank Lomani made up for an earlier missed penalty by converting with his second attempt to get Fiji on the board, but it was the men in white who continued their bright start when Joe Marchant borrowed over from close range with Farrell putting over the extras for a comfortable 15-3 lead.
Things went from bad to worse for the Fijians when wing Vinaya Habosi caught Smith full in the face with his head and was sent to the sin-bin for 10 minutes.
However, despite being down to 14-players, No. 8 Viliame Mata produced a moment of magic to outfox the England defence with a neat show and go to cross over the whitewash. Lomani converted to reduce the deficit to 15-10. Farrell and England’s breakdown success delighted Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, in the stands, by completing a penalty hat-trick as further cracks appeared in Fiji’s discipline, and Borthwick’s side led by 11 points at the break.
Despite looking dangerous, Fiji were continually being beaten to the breakdown and were caught offside. Farrell slotted over his fourth penalty to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
The Pacific Island nation recorded their first-ever win over England when the two teams last met – a 30-22 triumph in a World Cup warm-up match at Twickenham back in August and some wonderful rugby enabled them to close the gap to within punching distance when Peni Ravai burst through to get over the line with Kuruvoli converting.
Fiji were not going quietly and in an incredible turnaround they sliced England apart to score again through Vilimoni Botitu under the posts with Kuruvoli’s second successful conversion tying things up at 24-24 with 10 minutes to go.
A pulsating finale continued at pace, with Farrell then dropping a goal to put England three points ahead, and after Ben Earl’s stunning break resulted in another Farrell penalty, Fiji were unable to pull off a late miracle. (C.D)
The post England withstand Fiji fightback in thrilling quarter-final appeared first on DailyNews.