England to play NZ in World Cup semis after beating Australia
Written by News on 20/10/2019
England are into the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup after beating Australia 40-16 in Oita.
It was England’s seventh successive victory over the Wallabies, and they face reigning champions New Zealand in the semi-finals in Yokohama next weekend.
Eddie Jones’s team got off to a good start, with Jonny May scoring two tries in three minutes.
The winger went over in the left corner from close range in the 18th minute, before gathering the ball on the run a few minutes later and finding the corner again.
England finished the first half with a 17-9 lead.
Australia began the second half in determined style, with Marika Koroibete showing tremendous power and pace as he scored a brilliant individual try.
But England hit back just four minutes later after Kyle Sinckler received the ball from Owen Farrell and got it over the line.
It was safely converted, after which England were awarded three penalties, each of which they secured.
Late in the match, Anthony Watson scored another try for England after intercepting the ball as it flew through the air.
Captain Owen Farrell told ITV that Australia had made it a “brilliant game” and had “attacked throughout”.
He added: “Our boys did well in defence and then managed to get some field position off the back off it. When we do that, we know we can be dangerous.”
Eddie Jones said there were a “couple of good opportunities in the first half which put us in a good position”.
He continued: “They obviously came back in the second half through an error with us, and then we had to find ourselves.
“It was one of those ‘bring it on’ moments, where you decide whether to stick at or you go individual and we stuck out and I thought it was brilliant.”
Former England captain Will Carling tweeted that England had exercised “great control under pressure early in (the) second half”, adding: “Need to kick on again for the semis.”
New Zealand beat Ireland 46-14 in Tokyo.
The three-time champions had lost two of their last three matches against the Irish, but ended Saturday’s match with seven tries.
The All Blacks have not been defeated in the World Cup since losing 20-18 to France in 2007.
(c) Sky News 2019: England to play NZ in World Cup semis after beating Australia
