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Samoans give England a huge fright
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Late tries by Iain Balshaw and Phil Vickery spared England the biggest upset in Rugby World Cup history as the hotly favored stars scrambled a 35-22 victory over Samoa in Melbourne. The Samoans led 10-0 early and 16-13 at half time before a see-sawing second half enabled England to scrape home in the tournament's most exciting game yet. The tiring Pacific Islanders were eventually overcome by pressure from the England forwards. But although Clive Woodward's men gained a third victory to reach the quarterfinals, it could easily have been a humiliating defeat and captain Martin Johnson was painfully aware of it. "We have to take a good, long look at ourselves this week because it just wasn't good enough,' said Johnson afterwards. "There were too many mistakes and the penalties were just costing us. We're not going to beat teams in the quarter-finals if we make that many mistakes." But Johnson also praised the Samoans. "We haven't played a team who have played that well in the first 20 minutes since I can remember. We had to dig ourselves out of a 10-point hole. They asked us questions that we haven't been asked in a long, long time." Huge underdogs Samoa were 10-0 ahead inside eight minutes. Earl Va'a, who went into the game on 27 points and was once backup to Jonny Wilkinson at Newcastle, kicked the Samoans ahead after four minutes with an angled penalty. England started the game as the only team not concede a try, but that was all over within eight minutes. Flying winger Lome Fa'atau broke through on the right and, with the English defense pulled out of position, the ball was fed quickly through five pairs of hands to No. 8 Semo Sititi, who went over. Va'a kicked the conversion and England were 10 points down. Another bad sign for England was that Wilkinson, who had scored 36 points in two matches without missing a kick, flopped with his first from 47 meters. Va'a hit the post from 35 meters and it was the signal for an England comeback. The Samoans were guilty of a ruck infringement in the England half, Wilkinson launched a huge kick downfield and, from the resultant lineout, one of England's controversial rolling mauls -- with Neil Back dubiously bound at the back -- led to a try for the veteran back row. Wilkinson converted and Samoa's lead was cut to 10-7. Two minutes later it was 10-10 when the Samoans infringed again and Wilkinson landed a penalty. Va'a restored the Samoan lead with two more penalties including one from 47 meters and, amazingly, Wilkinson then missed one from the 22-meter line. He got the next one right from just in front of the posts in the final minute of the first half and Woodward's men went into half time three points behind and guilty of an uncharacteristally high 13 missed tackles. Woodward sent on three replacements and England had a great chance of a second try 10 minutes into the second half when they had 12 phases of play close to the Samoan line. But a combination of poor handling a great tackling kept Woodward's team out. Penalty trySouth African referee Jonathan Kaplan awarded England a penalty try when the Samoans collapsed a scrum with the English pack trying to push them over. Wilkinson kicked the conversion and England led 20-16. Va'a cut that to one point with his fourth penalty and then kicked his team back in front by two points with 18 minutes to go. But Wilkinson's third drop goal of the championship, after a spell of strong England pressure, turned it back England's way by one. England's pressure brought a third try with 10 minutes to go and it was something special. With the Samoans expecting another push from the forwards, Wilkinson launched a kick out right where Balshaw was waiting unchallenged to take a clean catch and go over in the corner. Wilkinson missed the conversion but England led by six. Then prop Phil Vickery ended another slick move, stepping inside and out two Samoans for his first England try. This time Wilkinson made the kick and England led by 13 with five minutes left. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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