2023-10-07 20:54:51
The Welsh largely beat the Georgians on Saturday (43-19) during a competitive meeting in Nantes, which allowed them to finish in first place in Pool D. The English did the same in Lille in Pool C but their mission proved much more difficult against the Samoans who only lost by one point (18-17).
Published on: 07/10/2023 – 20:54
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Within six minutes, Samoa had, on Saturday October 7, the first success in their history against England who finally completed their undefeated group phase in Lille (18-17) thanks to a late try (74th) from their scrum half Danny Care, transformed by Owen Farrell.
There is little chance that the English captain will not have happy memories of this day when he dethroned the legend Jonny Wilkinson as the player who scored the most points for the XV de la Rose (1,186 against 1,179 now).
Already assured of first place in their group, Steve Borthwick’s men had nothing to lose, except confidence, regained balin-balan over their three World Cup victories after a difficult preparation. This is perhaps the reason why the coach opted for a team with most of the potential English starters, without obtaining the expected effect.
George Ford’s band, lined up at the opening, went from nothing short of a historic setback in a bad way to one week before their quarter-final next Sunday, logically against another Pacific nation: the Fijians, who only need one point to take against Portugal. These same Flying Fijians defeated England for the first time in their history (30-22), less than two months ago in their Twickenham temple.
Thanks to two tries from their winger Nigel Ah Wong, the Samoans led 14-8 at half-time. While being poorly rewarded as the Pacific waves crashed into the English twenty-two meters, like the third try, twice canceled (33rd and 35th). But the English finally found the resources to come back and win at the wire.
The Welsh win but lose Faletau
Wales, for their part, signed a much larger victory, Saturday October 7 in Nantes, against Georgia (43-19), which allows them to finish in first place in Group D and to face in the quarter Argentina or Japan.
With this fourth success in four matches, the Welsh, who were nevertheless coming out of a delicate preparation with a team considered to be aging, obtained 19 points out of 20 possible, showing that they have a team capable of reaching the last four as during the World Cup 2019. They then beat the XV of France in the quarter-final (20-19).
“We finished first in the group in 2019 and to repeat this performance is great,” said coach Warren Gatland.
Furthermore, thanks to this success enhanced with six tries including a hat-trick from their speedy winger Louis Rees-Zammit, they wash away the insult of their defeat last fall in Cardiff (13-12) against these same Georgians.
The success was, however, tarnished by the injury of third line center Faletau to one arm, who was out of the rest of the tournament. In addition, fly-half Gareth Anscombe injured his groin in the warm-up and full-back Williams suffered a knock to his knee.
The Caucasians leave France with only three points in the standings, a draw against Portugal (18-18) and three defeats, and end a disappointing World Cup, even if they played their last match with panache, receiving warm applause from the Nantes public during their lap of honor.
With AFP
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