Fiji rue tough schedule after Wales defeat

“Wales top the pool with 13 points, but if England beat Australia at Twickenham tomorrow and then secure the bonus point against Uruguay a week later the hosts will proceed as winners on 15 points”.

Neil Jenkins says Wales are planning to win their final World Cup Pool A match, no matter who wins Saturday’s showdown between England and Australia. “They can go to Wales and get a result. But somehow I got through, I don’t know how – fluked it, I suppose”.

The Wallabies continued to be clinical on their visits into England territory, and it was Foley who went over for a second time to extend the visitors’ lead following a slick move through the backs.

“We know this weekend is even bigger than last weekend because of the outcome it has for the rest of the tournament”.

Q: Regardless of Saturday’s outcome, will Wales qualify if they beat Australia in the final round of pool games?

It should come as little surprise, therefore, that he had no truck for suggestions that the current squad might not deal with the pressure of a match they have to win to nearly certainly avoid the ignominy of becoming the first England team not to make the quarter-finals.

“If you had a team of Mike Browns, players with the same competitive DNA, England wouldn’t lose many Test matches and I wish a few of the other players and coaches would sometimes demonstrate that same passion and anger when things have gone badly wrong”. So many people are behind us so it’s a case of not letting them down.

“We will be OK”, Jenkins said. Realistically, Australia, England and Wales would be the first to admit they’d prefer not to face two-time champions South Africa.

“It’s not quite sunk in yet – I was trying to think of that as another game – but I’m really happy”.

England have been roundly criticised, with Stuart Lancaster’s tenure as coach being questioned and that of Chris Robshaw’s captaincy. In the past we’ve always been able to fall back on beating them up front but, if anything, our set-piece has been a bit shaky of late.

It was the straw which broke the camel’s back for Cheika, who had spent the week shunning any potential war of words with England ahead of the must-win clash. “We’d make the quarter-finals and it’s hard not to think that way”.

Cheika, who speaks several languages, responded to Woodward’s comments by telling a Twickenham news conference on Friday: “Mr Woodward’s right, I only got 300 out of 500 in my high-school certificate”.