England ended Fiji’s crowd-pleasing run at the Rugby World Cup on Sunday with a tense 30-24 win to reach the semi-finals for the sixth time.
In a welcome result for the northern hemisphere after quarter-final losses for Ireland and Wales on Saturday, the English countered a second-half fightback by the Flying Fijians as captain Owen Farrell kicked a drop goal and a penalty in the final eight minutes at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille.
England will play defending champions South Africa, who beat France by one point in the day’s later clash, in the semi-finals next weekend.
But the Pacific island nation couldn’t complete the comeback in their bid to become the first tier-two team to get to the semi-finals since the game went professional after the 1995 World Cup.
Farrell kicked 20 points for England to guide them to a gripping victory, the result up in the air until well after the allocated 80 minutes as Fiji pushed for a winning try.
Be the first to comment