Skipper Owen Farrell vowed never to repeat his blunder that could have cost nervy England victory against Samoa.
Farrell fell victim to the countdown clock for taking longer than 60 seconds to take a second half penalty with England on the ropes at 17-11 down.
The skipper claimed he could not see the timer as he lined up the shot but referee Andrew Brace pulled him up and three points went begging before England edged home 18-17. The incident was a snapshot of England’s lacklustre performance which leaves them with a pile of problems ahead of next Sunday’s quarterfinal, almost certainly against Fiji, in Marseille.
And Farrell, who had previously passed Jonny Wilkinson’s England points record, vowed he would not repeat the error which could have condemned England to a first defeat against Samoa.
Farrell said: “I didn’t see the clock. I wasn’t aware. It was above where I was picking my target.
I got lost a little bit in the kick. It wasn’t good enough and I’m glad for the team’s sake that it didn’t cost us. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again.
“A big credit to Samoa and how they came out firing. They put us under pressure at times. There will be loads of stuff that we can do better than that, which we’ll watch over. I’m glad with the fight that we showed towards the end, with finding the try and scrambling back so that Samoa did not score, too.”
And head coach Steve Borthwick faced the music and admitted England, saved by Danny Care’s late score, were not at the races and need improve pronto.
He added: “I wanted a tough Test today – and that’s exactly what we got. There was a lot that was not at the required standard – lots of errors, mistakes, scrappiness and, for a period there were too many penalties – and then the players got hold of it on the pitch and found a way to get the result at the end of the day.
“The team was in tough circumstances we didn’t want to be there, we didn’t want to play the way that got us in those tough circumstances but this team found a way out of it. What we’re seeing now is a team that finds a way through games, navigates the way through situations which has been an oft criticised element of this team. I see a team that finds a way. I see a team that never stops. Have we got to be better? Yes, without question, we want to be better.”
Samoa boss Seilala Mapusua reckoned his side got a rough deal from Brace saying: “I asked the question if the referees have an unconscious bias when a tier one team plays a tier two team. I believe there is and I believe there has been in the past. I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault, it’s what I’ve seen in our game for the last however many years, since I was playing.”
All week, England have trotted out the party line they were not thinking about next weekend’s last eight game, as they went into this game knowing they had top spot in Pool D sewn up, but were fully concentrating on Samoa. But they looked as if they had taken their eye off the ball last night.
Borthwick countered: “We were under enormous pressure and there were periods where we were not at the required standard.
“Now these players have to recover, regenerate, recharge, so as of Monday we’ll start Test week, going into a quarter-final we’re very excited about.”
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