And with that, I’m gone. Those were 78 impressive minutes from England, who bestride the Pool C table like a sporting colossus, albeit one that has played a game more than anyone else. Anyway, here’s that table for you, and all the other information you could possibly want or need. Bye!
Eddie Jones talks to ITV:
Well, two games and 10 points. No major injuries, I think Owen’s got half his nose missing but apart from that we’re pretty good. I think we’re getting used to the conditions. It was 27 degrees, 70% humidity, the ball was like a cake of soap. We wanted 10 points after two games, so we’re perfect.
On Lewis Ludlam’s performances:
Look, he’s an incredible young player and he’s only going to get better. He was luck to make Northampton’s B team 12 months ago and he’s out there playing in a World Cup and one of the most impressive young forwards out there.
And on their next game, against Argentina next Saturday:
We’ve got two or three days off, a nice break, then it’s a one-off game against Argentina. They’re playing for their life and we’re playing to beat Argentina, so it’s going to be a great game.
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Here’s Jonny Wilkinson on those madcap final moments, when having got nowhere near the England tryline for 79 minutes the USA suddenly got two near-misses and a try:
That ball looked impossible to hold at the end. No one could pass it, no one could carry it. Those are great players out there who know what they’re doing with their skill, and if they’re struggling it’s for a reason.
Here’s Robert Kitson’s match report from Kobe:
No American dreams here, just a painful 80-minute nightmare. Eddie Jones’s England were supposed to be footsore and weary only 96 hours after their opening game against Tonga but instead their forwards had far too much in the tank for their outclassed opponents en route to their second convincing pool win of this Rugby World Cup.
England’s eventual seven-try victory was also notable for the tournament’s first red card, shown to US flanker John Quill for a blatant shoulder charge to Owen Farrell’s head. Quill could have no argument at all about the decision but, with England already 38 points up, it had no effect on the outcome.
Much more here:
George Ford says a few words. I do mean a few:
It’s a good win again. We had to work for it, USA are a very physical, passionate team. We had to earn that win and I thought we did that very well.
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Final score: England 45-7 USA!
84 mins: And that’s the final action!
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TRY! And converted! England 45-7 USA!
82 mins: They get their try! It’s all a horrible mess. England give the ball away two yards off their line, and this chance the USA can’t fluff! Bryce Campbell goes over the line!
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81 mins: And another go! De Haas runs forward! He jinks left! He jinks right! He attracts the last two defenders! He totally fluffs his pass to Kermishuys!
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80 mins: Suddenly the USA roar forward! They pick the ball up from a ruck and pass right to Te’o, who streaks through the entire England team with very little opposition and looks to pass inside to Ruben de Haas, who has nothing but green grass in front of him, but it’s fumbled!
79 mins: England work the ball from left to right, where Kyle Sinckler bursts through the defensive line and is so excited by this development that he drops the ball.
78 mins: Three minutes from the end, as three minutes from the beginning, the USA are forced into a change. Will Hooley is off with what looks a potentially serious injury, and Iosefo is back on.
79 mins: The game is still stopped. George Ford is named player of the match, and will be receiving a freshly-engraved trophy in a few minutes.
78 mins: England run forward again, when suddenly the whistle blows! The referee explains that he had an urgent call to stop, with a USA player on the ground.
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TRY! And it's converted! England 45-0 USA!
77 mins: The ball is quickly worked to Cokanasiga, who with half the USA defence either busy stopping Genge or lying scattered around the field in his wake is able to streak through!
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76 mins: Genge emerges from a maul and sets off downfield. He steamrollers one tackle, bulldozes through another and suddenly England are on the attack! Meanwhile, Anya Revens is in Kobe: “Shout out to the England fans at the back of our stand in Kobe. Despite the brutal heat & humidity they’ve kept us going with many rounds of Swing Low, Country roads, Sweet Caroline & they’ve now bravely embarked on Bohemian Rhapsody! Fantastic atmosphere. And unsurprisingly a lot of booing for the tackle on Farrell.”
74 mins: England give a brief exhibition of the art of fumbling and loose passing. To be fair, the ball and every hand that is laid upon it have to be extremely sweaty by now. Somehow they get away with it, and the USA get no more than a scrum.
71 mins: So finally the tournament has its first red card, and it couldn’t have been much clearer. Then Farrell’s fantastic kick nearly releases Cokanasiga, but as he slides along the ground to collect it he fails to do so cleanly and it bounces off him, a few yards from the line. The weighting of that kick, though, was just fantastic.
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RED CARD! John Quill is off!
70 mins: That was nasty. Quill hits Farrell, his shoulder making clear and violent contact with the England player’s head.
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70 mins: Handbags! England get the ball, Farrell fumbles, but he finally gets the ball in hand, rises with it and is clobbered by John Quill, who will surely get a red card for it! In the meantime, there’s an angry coming-together involving most of the players on the pitch.
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70 mins: Mark Wilson drops the ball from the kick-off, and the USA threaten for the first time today!
Converted! England 38-0 USA
69 mins: No problem there for Ford.
TRY! England 36-0 USA
68 mins: The gap is becoming a chasm now, and there’s an enormous void on the right side of the USA defence as England work the ball wide and end up with four players marching untracked to the tryline, with Lewis Ludlum doing the honours!
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66 mins: Joseph goes on another lovely, twisty, quicksilver run down the right, but his kick infield at the end of it is just too long for Ford.
65 mins: England seem to be getting quicker, though it may simply be comparative.
62 mins: England threaten again, but just as George Ford’s last conversion sailed between the posts, his last pass sailed between his team-mates.
61 mins: A load more changes. There are people with clean, sweat-free shirts all over the place now.
Converted! England 31-0 USA!
60 mins: This conversion was harder still, but Ford gets his aiming perfect this time and it sails between the posts!
TRY! England 29-0 USA!
59 mins: A quick tap-penalty and England have the USA scrambling and failing to organising their defence. Eventually the ball goes wide to the right, where McConnochie collects and goes over!
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57 mins: They’re still scrummaging, after a couple of collapses.
54 mins: England threaten again, only for Sinckler to knock on. It’ll be a USA scrum.
50 mins: A few more England changes: Ben Youngs, Owen Farrell and Courtney Lawes come on, Heinz, Francis and Launchbury go off.
49 mins: Ford misses another conversion attempt, this from wide on the right and his hardest of the night by a margin.
TRY! England 24-0 USA!
48 mins: A lovely run from Joseph, whose spin takes him past a couple of opponents and who then sprints towards the tryline. He’s finally stopped just a couple of yards short, and the ball is popped straight to Cokanasiga, who goes over!
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47 mins: A much improved couple of minutes for the USA, but it ends with them clinging onto the ball when it’s on the floor, and an England penalty.
44 mins: At the end of all that Ford goes for touch but fluffs his kick, which crosses the tryline before the byline and the USA get to clear.
43 mins: It ends with a high tackle on Launchbury, and a delay while the US bring on Paul Mullen for Lamositele, and Mike Te’o for Hooley.
42 mins: England have completely dominated since the restart. They work the ball from right to left, back to the right, and back to the left again.
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41 mins: And the second half is under way!
Three half-time changes for England. Ellis Genge is on for Marler, Kyle Sinckler on for Cole, and Mark Wilson for Vunipola.
And here’s this week’s Breakdown, from Paul Rees in Kobe:
The way Japan has embraced the World Cup and a sport that otherwise attracts little attention is visible wherever a match is staged. The manager at a hotel in Toyota on Monday, bedecked in the kit of the host nation, admitted he knew nothing about the oval code but felt he had a duty to support the event.
And so that night the streets of downtown Toyota were crowded with locals wearing Wales jerseys and supporting them against Georgia with the same fervour of those who have travelled nearly 6,000 miles to follow the team. “It is a matter of national pride,” said the manager, who admitted he would be following next year’s Olympics in Tokyo far more closely than the rugby. “We want people to think well of Japan.”
Much more here:
A competent, if not overwhelming, first-half performance from England, who are on course for the victory and the bonus point they wanted, and until the last minute there had been very few handling errors to moan about. Here’s some half-time reading for you:
A report on Italy 48-7 Canada:
A Japan v Ireland preview:
Half time: England 19-0 USA!
England threaten a fourth first-half try soon after the gong sounds. Daly kicks over the top of the USA defence, Joseph bursts on to it and passes to Cokanasiga, and with a try looking increasingly likely he knocks it on! The whistle blows, and that’s half-time!
40 mins: Ford kicks crossfield right to left towards Cokanasiga, but as he jumps to catch it Hooley comes from nowhere, getting nowhere near the ball, and does a flying shoulder-barge. It’s not terribly violent or dangerous, but there was no control there at all.
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39 mins: Daly’s blind pass, from tight on the right touchline, bounces up and is collected by Tony Lamborn, who unaccountably fumbles! He beats the turf in frustration, and it’ll be another scrum.
TRY! England 19-0 USA!
33 mins: Another try, and it’s a repeat of the second! This time the line-out is on the right rather than the left, and a bit further from the tryline, but England just steamroller through their opponents and in the end Cowan-Dickie touches down! Ford’s attempted conversion, with several USA players closing down, hits the post and rebounds away!
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32 mins: Another penalty, from another scrum, and another kick into touch from George Ford.
30 mins: A lovely kick from AJ MacGinty finds Scully on the left touchline, and for the first time the USA are putting pressure on England.
And it's converted! England 14-0 USA!
26 mins: Ford’s kick sails between the posts, and England further extend their lead! That was a little too easy, but though England haven’t been particularly convincing with the ball, they have kept it in the USA half for almost the entire game and that kind of pressure is going to tell.
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TRY! England 12-0 USA!
25 mins: And they get a try! From the line-out England drive the ball over the line and Vinipola touches down!
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24 mins: England win a penalty, right in front of the posts and within easy kicking range. Again, they go for the corner. England don’t want easy points, they want tries.
23 mins: England gain 15 yards in the maul, Cowan-Dickie hanging off its back with the ball in his hands and just walking forwards.
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20 mins: Marcel Brache hits Launchbury with a fine tackle that spins the Englishman and sends the ball skewing out of his arms.
19 mins: A long spell of England pressure ends with a USA scrum.
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18 mins: Another England penalty, and again it’s kicked to a corner. From the line-out, they go from left to right but the USA defence holds up.
14 mins: USA lose the ball on the floor, but then Heinz keeps hold of it on the ground, and the USA get an easy clearance.
12 mins: England get a penalty on the right after Lewis Ludlum gets grabbed by the neck. England kick it to the corner, but don’t capitalise.
11 mins: Ford hoists the ball high into the sky, and as it falls Will Hooley just about keeps it for the USA. It was nearly grabbed by Daly, but in the end the ball bounced off him and it would have been a knock-on had the USA not emerged with it.
9 mins: The teams trade kicks for a bit, ending when Ford finds touch.
TRY! England 7-0 USA!
6 mins: From the maul the ball is thrown straight to George Ford, who spies a gap in the USA defence and speeds straight through it! He touches down between the posts, and it’s easily converted!
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6 mins: England go close! Francis finds some space on the left wing, cuts inside and, as he goes down, tries to lay off to Curry, but it falls behind him, bounces, and Launchbury is then held at bay.
3 mins: Ainuu limps from the field, arms draped across the shoulders of a couple of team-mates. Olive Kilifi replaces him.
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3 mins: David Ainuu, the loosehead prop, has not got back up after that scrum, and is gingerly feeling his left cankle/calf area.
3 mins: The first scrum ends with Willi Heinz tackling Shaun Davies before he’s picked up the ball, and thus a US penalty.
2 mins: England work the ball from left to right, but a final long pass to Cokanasiga is not the best, and forces him to turn back.
1 min: And they’re off!
Ready for action! England, wearing red, will get the game started.
“Does playing like 15 Donald Trumps involve making a terrible mess of everything but getting away with it if the opposition is incompetent and the TMO is Russian?” wonders James. That may very well be England’s cunning plan but according to Eddie Jones it’s the USA who will play like 15 Trumps. Perhaps it simply means being confident, committing fully to your gameplan and being at all times in complete denial of your own failings?
The players are out, and the national anthems being played!
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Eddie Jones has had a pre-match chat with ITV:
It’s a marathon. The World Cup’s a marathon. We’re looking for a measured performance tonight. We know the USA are going to play with a lot of pride and passion, but we might have a little bit more pace in our side tonight.
On his much-changed team:
I think more and more the World Cup’s about a squad of 31. We’re seeing sides losing players already and we know the game’s getting more and more physical, so the ability to have a squad that’s in tune, in form and competing against each other, and then being able to put out a competitive 23, is going to be so important.
And on the swift turnaround and conditions in Kobe:
We haven’t done much training but we had a run-out in here yesterday and it was a little bit sweaty. It’s a test of your ability to focus and do the simple things well.
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Here’s a bit more on the Player of the Match trophy. I am more befuddled than ever:
The hardware features a sculptural origami design, inspired by the work of Professor Jun Mitani, and will be finished live on the ground with in-the-moment laser etching reflecting highlights from the match. Monitoring fan activity on social media through a bespoke API – combined with commentary from the official worldfeed RWC 2019™ – Mastercard will select the top moments of each match to be immortalised on the trophy.
This unique storymaking approach enables players to take home a first-of-its-kind, truly priceless account of the match, so they can re-live moments of passion, excitement and sporting greatness.
Throughout the World Cup they are laser-etching quotes from the official commentary onto the player of the match trophies. Why is this happening? What’s the point? Really, I find the whole business very confusing.
Get ready for #ENGvUSA with @Mastercard. Follow along as some of the official commentary is laser etched onto the #POTM trophy.#RWCKobe pic.twitter.com/iqwgZasLqP
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) September 26, 2019
“I’m not a gambling man, but could you point me toward somewhere that I can lay a significant amount of money to wager that this will be an unnecessarily turgid affair strewn with enough handling errors that there’s a decent chance Brian Moore may explode?” pleads Ant Pease. “Admittedly, it’s a niche bet, but I reckon it’s surefire money.” Oh you terrible cynic you.
It is “incredibly humid”, say ITV from the stadium. On the plus side, Ben Kay says the playing surface is “magical”.
A bit more pre-match reading:
According to the World Cup’s official website, the Kobe Misaki Stadium is a “purpose-built rectangular stadium”. I think this undersells it somewhat. For a start, from outside it’s barely even rectangular. The roof is closed tonight, and it is apparently pretty steamy in there though the temperature outside is a perfectly reasonable 26C.
I’m not sure what’s going on here, but it looks extremely suspicious.
Here’s a bit by Will Hooley, the USA’s England-born, Bedford-based back who is writing for us throughout the World Cup:
Join Niall McVeigh to see how Italy got on against Canada:
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Hello world!
England’s second game of the World Cup sees Eddie Jones make 10 changes to face the USA, who are playing their first game of the tournament. The build-up has been rather rum, with Jones predicting that his side’s opponents will play like “15 Donald Trumps”, an assertion that totally bewildered his opposite number, Gary Gold. “At this stage, with all due respect, we’re not a good enough rugby team to be making comments or answers to questions like that,” Gold said. “I don’t know what it means.”
Though the turnaround from the 35-3 victory over Tonga has been brief, this has been an accommodatingly scheduled pool stage for England, who are given a second game to gently warm themselves into proceedings before forthcoming, and more helpfully-spaced, games against Argentina and France. Though the personnel have changed, they will want to put on a more convincing performance than in their opener, and ideally another bonus point against a nation that has won one game – against Russia in 2011 – out of 12 in their last three World Cups.
Here are the teams:
England: Elliot Daly, Ruaridh McConnochie, Jonathan Joseph, Piers Francis, Joe Cokanasiga, George Ford (captain), Willi Heinz; Billy Vunipola, Lewis Ludlam, Tom Curry, George Kruis, Joe Launchbury, Dan Cole, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Joe Marler.
Reserves: Jack Singleton, Ellis Genge, Kyle Sinckler, Courtney Lawes, Mark Wilson, Ben Youngs, Owen Farrell, Anthony Watson.
United States: Will Hooley, Blaine Scully (captain), Marcel Brache, Paul Lasike, Martin Iosefo, AJ MacGinty, Shaun Davies; Cam Dolan, John Quill, Tony Lamborn, Nick Civetta, Ben Landry, Titi Lamositele, Joe Taufete’e, David Ainu’u.
Reserves: Dylan Fawsitt, Olive Kilifi, Paul Mullen, Greg Peterson, Hanco Germishuys, Ruben de Haas, Bryce Campbell, Mike Te’o.
And here’s Rob Kitson’s match preview. And also, finally, welcome:
Kick-off: 11.45am BST, 6.45am EDT, 7.45pm local in Kobe.
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