England book World Cup Final place

By Mark Stevens
26/10/19

England reached a third Rugby World Cup final, defeating reigning champions New Zealand 19-7 in a pulsating encounter in Yokohama.

Eddie Jones’ side will face either South Africa or Wales in next Saturday’s final, after sealing a famous victory over the All Blacks.

They will be attempting to win a second Rugby World Cup, having last lifted the William Webb Ellis trophy in 2003.

England, who included Exeter Chiefs duo Henry Slade and Luke Cowan-Dickie in their match-day squad, led 10-0 at the break through Manu Tuilagi's try, Owen Farrell's conversion and a George Ford penalty.

Ardie Savea's converted try got New Zealand back in the game, but Ford kicked three second-half penalties to seal victory.

Post-game, Jones paid tribute to his side's defence, saying: "Steve Hansen's a great coach and Kieran Read's a great captain, we had to dig deep.

"We knew we'd have to come off the line hard and keep taking away time and space from them. We managed to do that and forced a few errors. Maybe we had a few lucky bounces and got the result."

Forwards Itoje, Underhill and Tom Curry were superb defensively, while Tuilagi's line speed in midfield will haunt the All Blacks and showed they haven't yet cracked the code to that challenge.

"I think World Cups are always about defence, and our defence creates opportunities for our offence to attack, but again I'd like to pay the greatest compliment to New Zealand, who've won two World Cups in a row," Jones added.

"They've been a great team so we had to dig really deep to beat them. I'm excited for the boys. They've worked really hard to get where they are, and it's just another week in the comp now mate."