Wins for France and England

France, England and Wales all notched up vital wins in the World Cup yesterday, but all were given scares by so-called second tier teams.

Similar to their opener against Japan, the French found it hard to shake off underdogs Canada, who were hanging on within a converted try after an hour of play.

Full-back Damien Traille then grabbed a breakaway try giving the French some breathing space and a late brace from Vincent Clerc made it 46-19 in the end, very like the 47-21 scoreline they managed against Japan.

Marc Lievremont’s men will now prepare for the showdown with the All Blacks in Auckland next Saturday and if they lose that, they will likely go up against old World Cup foes England in the quarter-finals.

Martin Johnson’s men stayed on course to top Pool B, but they were on the back foot for much of the first half against a gutsy Georgian team in Dunedin before pulling away in the second period to win 41-10.

Shontayne Hape and Chris Ashton scored two tries apiece with Delon Armitage and Manu Tuilagi also touching down.

Victory was what England needed after the furore surrounding their night out in Queenstown last week, which led to allegations Mike Tindall, England’s skipper against the Pumas, had behaved improperly in a bar.

But Georgia can take great credit from the match having had to cope with just a four-day turnaround after a 15-6 defeat by Scotland on Wednesday.

“We made it hard for ourselves and gave away a lot of penalties, but we came away with six tries,” England skipper Lewis Moody said.

“Fair play to Georgia, they played a fantastic game. We got some things to work on. But you can only win every game that is put in front of you.”

Earlier in the day, Wales edged Samoa 17-10 in a bruising Pool D encounter in Hamilton that revived Welsh hopes of reaching the last eight of the World Cup for just the fourth time.

Veteran Shane Williams scampered over deep into the second half to secure the vital win which buried the ghosts of major upsets the Welsh suffered at the hands of Samoa in 1991 and 1999.

Samoa edged a scrappy first half 10-6 but the Welsh backline came to life after the break and were rewarded with Williams’s 67th-minute score – his 55th Test try and eighth in the World Cup.

The win, following Wales’s 16-17 opening loss to defending champions South Africa, puts them in the box seat to qualify second from the pool with a likely quarter-final against Six Nations rivals Ireland, who upset Australia on Saturday.

“We knew today was a must-win game,” said coach Warren Gatland.

“Forget about the performance, we just knew we had to win. That’s why I’m so proud of the boys: under a bit of pressure, they just dug deep.”

Samoa were left to rue referee Alain Rolland’s decision to rule out Maurie Faasavalu’s first-half score for double-grounding as they face remaining fixtures against Fiji and South Africa.

“We’re still there – I’ve got belief in my team,” said captain Mahonri Schwalger.

“My team will make the quarter-finals, if we concentrate on the next two games.”

Results

Pool A: France vs Canada 46-19.
Standings: New Zealand (2-0-0) 10; France (2-0-0) 10; Canada (1-0-1) 4; Tonga (0-0-2) 1; Japan (0-0-2) 0.

Pool B: England vs Georgia 41-10.
Standings: England (2-0-0) 9; Scotland (2-0-0) 9; Argentina (1-0-1) 6; Georgia (0-0-2) 0; Romania (0-0-2) 0.

Pool D: Wales vs Samoa 17-10.
Standings: South Africa (2-0-0) 9; Samoa (1-0-1) 6; Wales (1-0-1) 5; Fiji (1-0-1) 5; Namibia (0-0-2) 0.