England’s World Cup hits and misses

England’s last Pool A game against Uruguay in Manchester next weekend has turned into an encore, and for all intents and purposes the host has been kicked out of its own party, the biggest and potentially best Rugby World Cup.

They got behind their team from there, and the players on the field began to react as they drew even closer with an Owen Farrell penalty in the 64th minute. He described Wales boss Warren Gatland as a “master coach“.

However Lancaster has refused to shift blame after a humiliating exit that was confirmed by Australia’s 33-13 victory over England at Twickenham on Saturday evening.

He continued: “You’ve got to put things into perspective, it’s great that we’ve qualified, but you’ve got to feel for other teams because there are families and livelihoods at stake”.

“It is just about ourselves at the moment and trying to improve on the performance against England, said Cheika”.

He came up through the Rugby Football Union system and was coach of the reserve England Saxons when he was promoted. Yeah, ok, that went well for us tonight. We need to reflect on the perspective of all of that.

“I had wondered whether he was good enough but he certainly showed he is”.

“But please know, to a man, we have given everything we have in preparation and in the games”.

“We knew their (England’s) backs were against the wall and we needed to match their physicality and that desperation”, Ashley-Cooper said.

“It was outrageously loud (at Twickenham) and we wanted to get stuck in from the start”.

Lancaster appeared resigned to the end of his tenure yesterday, accepting full responsibility for the failure following the record home defeat to Australia on Saturday night.

“Mario has taught me that the scrum is a very important part of the game”.

He said: “England had to pull something special out of the bag against Australia“.

“We don’t have the burden of needing to win the game to qualify”, said Gatland.

“For Australia to dominate the scrum against England as they did, demonstrates the superiority of us over them”, Fairfax Media’s Roy Masters told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The Wallabies lauded their hero Foley.

Bernard Foley scored two tries – converting both of them himself.

“I think the next level was for him to dictate like that in a Welsh shirt, and I think he has done that”.

“There’s a lot of history in this shirt and we’ve got to make sure we do that justice”.

Meanwhile Foley himself saluted the work of Australia back-row forwards Michael Hooper and Scott Fardy who, together with Pocock, pillaged the ball and harried the English throughout the match.

“The Wales game, obviously, being 22-12 up 60 minutes in and then to not come away with a win really put us under pressure”.

“There will be an inquest and consequences for those in charge – and those who made the appointments – but for the remainder of the competition itself I would like to see all concerned go to ground and keep their counsel”.