Poor England scrape past USA
England coach Brian Ashton has work to do
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Saturday, 08, Sep 2007 07:45
England's defence of the rugby World Cup got off to a disappointing start today as they scraped past minnows USA 28-10 at the Stade Felix Bollaert, Lens.
In a day when their rivals New Zealand eased past Italy 76-14 and Australia hammered Japan 91-3, England were expected to put a marker down for their chances of defending the Webb Ellis trophy.
But in a lacklustre display, England only managed to score three tries against a USA team which had lost to a Munster second XV in a World Cup warm-up match.
England failed to create a great deal in the absence of Jonny Wilkinson, and it took them 35 minutes to score the first try as Jason Robinson latched on to a Mike Catt cross-field kick to go over.
Olly Barkley scored a second try five minutes later after a good break by wing Josh Lewsey to give a respectable half-time score of 21-3.
Things did not get much better for the world champions in the second half and all they managed to muster up was a try from Tom Rees. The Wasps man was one of the few England players to impress and he took a quick tap penalty to drive over the line for a deserved try.
Embarrassingly for England, USA managed to score a try late on as Tongan born forward Matekitonga Moeakiola brushed aside Barkley Lewis Moody to score a try and cap-off a spirited performance by his team.
With the massive clash against South Africa only six days away, England have a lot of work to do and will be praying that star player Wilkinson recovers from injury.