England storm into Rugby World Cup quarter-finals as Breach leads Samoa rout

A David v Goliath match saw England win a brutal encounter against Samoa which displayed the disparity between the nations in the sport as 11 of the Red Roses shared 14 tries to secure their quarter-final spot with a pool game to spare in a colossal win. Half of Samoa’s squad had to fundraise to be able to attend this Rugby World Cup, with no contracts in place, and some have taken unpaid leave from their jobs to represent their country. England, on the other hand, have been a professional outfit for more than five years and have now swept aside their opponents in 59 of their last 60 matches, that one loss coming in the last World Cup final.

Among the try scorers was the wing Jess Breach, who was the hat-trick heroine, but the first try was a special one for the 27-year-old as it was her 50th for her country. The centre Meg Jones got on the board twice, and had not been in the starting XV at the beginning of this week, but an injury to Emily Scarratt saw her promoted. The Cardiff-born centre’s contributions across the pitch were outstanding as her prowess in an England shirt only grows.

There was an air of unfamiliarity between the two teams, the last time they faced one another being back in 2014, which led Abi Burton to say in the build-up England were expecting Samoa “to throw the kitchen sink” at them, which was definitely the case. Samoa’s physicality was their biggest strength with huge hits throughout the encounter.

Half an hour before kick-off the rain started to fall, and it was off and on all match, perhaps adding to the amount of handling errors. Despite play not being the cleanest at times, it took less than three minutes for England to score and Jones ran a great line to go over. The wing Breach scored next, with the prop Sarah Bern and Jones adding others to have the bonuspoint wrapped up in the 16th minute.

The fifth try saw England’s scrum pack demolish Samoa’s before Maddie Feaunati pounced on the rolling ball. The hooker Lark Atkin-Davies then got amongst the action, and the scrum-half Lucy Packer was next over. The hairs on the back of everyone’s neck in Northampton stood up as the stands came alive when Samoa entered their 22 for the first time in the closing moments of the first half but England managed to turn them over with the half-time score 47-0.