Five-try Arundell caps England win
Rugby
Winger Henry Arundell scored five tries as England tore up the safety-first playbook from their first two matches at the Rugby World Cup in a crushing 71-0 defeat of Chile on Saturday to hand coach Steve Borthwick a selection quandary.England, who made 12 changes from the starting line-up against Japan, scored 11 tries, including five for 20-year-old winger Arundell that equalled an England record, albeit against the lowest ranked team in the tournament playing at their first World Cup.
The changes included captain Owen Farrell returning from suspension but arguably it was another flyhalf, Marcus Smith, starting for the first time at fullback, who stole the limelight with flashes of the spontaneous touches England have missed in recent months that made a strong case for his inclusion in the team later in the tournament.
Although England can start planning for a quarterfinal in Marseille against Wales, Australia or Fiji, they are not mathematically assured of progress as an unlikely defeat to Samoa in their final game in two weeks, combined with other results, could leave them in a three-way tie at the top which would be decided on points difference
They top the standings on 14 points. Samoa and Japan have five, Argentina four and Chile are yet to register after three defeats.
“A lot of those were tap-ins, so it’s the work done up front then the smarts from the inside lads to get the ball wide,” said Arundell. “I really appreciate all they’ve done for me.”
Argentina solid enough to beat Samoa
Fullback Emiliano Boffelli scored 16 points in a man-of-the-match performance as Argentina got their World Cup campaign back on track with a hardfought 19-10 victory over a committed Samoa on Friday.
Boffelli scored an early try and converted four of five kicks from the tee to get the Pumas back to winning ways after the disappointment of their 27-10 loss to 14-man England in their Pool D opener.
“It’s a massive victory for us, very important for this tournament,” Argentina captain Julian Montoya said after first thanking his noisy compatriots in the stands.
“The last game against England, we didn’t do what we were supposed to do, today we did it pretty well. Still plenty to improve but that’s exciting too.”
Samoa managed just one penalty kick from former Wallabies flyhalf Christian Leali’ifano until replacement hooker Sama Malolo barged his way over the line for his third try of the tournament five minutes from time.
That set up a frenetic finale but Nicolas Sanchez, coming off the bench to win his 99th cap for Argentina, lashed over a final penalty from just inside the Samoa half to make the game safe.
“Extremely proud of the boys but I think the better team won today, full credit to Argentina, they were more clinical,” said Samoa co-captain Chris Vui.
– SuperSport/Reuters