England’s World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward has criticised incumbent Stuart Lancaster for his substitutions in Saturday’s defeat to Wales – and for the decision not to kick a late penalty to tie the game.
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This time around, England led 16-9 at half-time thanks to a Jonny May try, but a sensational Welsh comeback, powered by 23 points from Dan Biggar, saw them secure a vital 28-25 win.
The victory has seen Wales take a huge step towards the last eight although they still have two testing games to come against the unpredictable Fijians, who beat them in the 2007 finals, and the two-time world champion Wallabies.
“Well done to Wales”, said Lancaster.
That they emerged victorious represents one of the greatest victories by any team in rugby union history.
The defeat comes as a crushing blow to England, who dominated large spells of the contest but were simply unable to finish their opponents off.
“Potentially, we could lose more, there is no doubt about that”, he said.
It was a decision the led to criticism being levelled in Chris Robshaw’s direction but Youngs said the team will group together and refocus on Australia next weekend.
“The two lineouts before we had good ascendancy in the driving”, Robshaw said. “It hurts like hell at the moment”.
Whoever Wales pick will have big boots to fill, he added. We weighed up the options, we wanted to go for the win. “I think that showed in the second half against England when we were coming on strong, even with all the injuries we had”. “(Referee) Jerome Garces is very tight on that and that ultimately was the difference”.
Wales coach Warren Gatland had urged his side to “smash” into England and there was no shortage of thunderous collisions in the opening quarter.
Centre Scott Williams, with a leg injury, and full-back Liam Williams, after a blow to the head, were both taken off on a stretcher.
However, if England were to go out in the pool stages for the first time it would be a commercial disaster for ITV, which will not attract anywhere near the same audiences for matches between other nations. If you want it badly enough, for whatever reason, it can happen for you. “Sometimes you just have to dig deep and show your resilience”.
His seven penalties and conversion ensured he overtook Neil Jenkins’s record of 22 points in a Rugby World Cup match against Japan in 1995.
“It’s a massive game for us and everyone knows the stakes, so I’ll have no problems getting the players ready – 100% we’ll be ready”.
Gatland was also surprised England chose not to kick their late penalty.
“Another thing that impressed me massively was Fiji when they played England was the scrum”.
“It was a courageous call to make”.
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“Obviously, they’ve got their own threats at the breakdown in (David) Pocock and (Michael) Hooper, they’ve got a talented back line, but I think our boys will be ready”.
