England complete autumn clean sweep with seven-try rout of Samoa

England 48 Samoa 14: The series of wins over Argentina, Australia and now the Samoans has taught England’s head coach Eddie Jones plenty about his squad’s impressive strength in depth

England completed a clean sweep this autumn with victory over Samoa (Getty)

England completed a satisfying clean sweep of their trio of autumn matches with victory over a game Samoa by seven tries to two, before joining a collective huddle of mutual respect with their beaten opponents straight after the final whistle.

The series of wins over Argentina, Australia and now the Samoans has taught England’s head coach Eddie Jones plenty about his squad’s impressive strength in depth, while leaving the rest of the world in no doubt the red rose is closer than anyone to knocking New Zealand off their perch as the planet’s number-one ranked team.

It was England’s eighth win out of eight against the blue-jerseyed Pacific Islanders, but Jones called it “ugly” and it never felt like a runaway rout, as the home side fell narrowly short of the record margin of victory: 37 points here in 2005 when Lewis Moody and Alesana Tuilagi were sent off.

England had a try by Mike Brown inside two minutes, converted by George Ford, and the ease with which Alex Lozowski freed his fellow centre Henry Slade for a run up the left in the build-up signposted a tricky afternoon for the Samoans.

It became 12-0, after eight minutes, with a second try for England by Saracens’ Lozowski, whose club-mate Owen Farrell was rested, as he had been against the Pumas two weeks ago, and doing water-boy duties instead.

A high punt by Ford was dropped by his opposite number Tim Nanai-Williams in the worst possible place as Elliot Daly collected and the supporting Jamie George demonstrated his speed across the field to make the link back inside to Lozowski.

The clash with Samoa rounded off England's autumn (Getty)

George’s start ahead of Dylan Hartley was one of a handful of changes made by England with a view to trying fresh or back-up combinations. It may be just under two years to the next World Cup in Japan, but that amounts to around 20 Test matches which is the equivalent of roughly half a club season.

Fortunately for the near capacity crowd, Samoa had plenty about them and in the 13th minute the tourists, if we may use that old-fashioned word, had a try - which was one more than Australia managed here a week ago.

Sale Sharks flanker TJ Ioane was held up by Brown but from the scrum, Gloucester hooker Motu Matu’u sent the 6ft 5ins Toulouse flanker Piula Fa’asalele crashing over, and fly-half Nanai-Williams converted.

Mostly, though, England’s defence was in the same good order as it had been in the autumn’s previous wins over Argentina and the Aussies.

Brown got England underway (Getty)

At times the defensive line of white jerseys appeared linked by an invisible chain and even when the Samoans’ energetic captain, Chris Vui – one of four of players from the Championship leaders, Bristol – foxed England with one of several clever show-and-goes, the cover reformed so quickly that it prevented the appearance of any significant gap.

England lost Joe Launchbury during the first half as the lock went off with ice immediately applied to his right shoulder, which will worry his cub Wasps with next week’s Premiership match against Leicester and a European double-header with La Rochelle coming up.

At the next scrum England had Charlie Ewels and Maro Itoje as left and right locks, with Robshaw on the open side and Launchbury’s replacement Courtney Lawes on the blind.

This interchangeability is part of Jones’s blueprint for the back five of the pack, but the driving maul was worryingly unimpressive without the bulk of Launchbury, and England were unable to generate a forward surge from an attacking line-out in the Samoa 22, caught by Lawes in the middle, just before half-time.

In the meantime, though, England had their third try, and Ewels’s second for his country after one on tour in Argentina in June, when Care expertly controlled possession at a couple of rucks on the left. Ford converted it for a lead of 22-7.

Lozowski crossed for England's second (Getty)

England had resisted other possible alterations, with 30-year-old tighthead prop Dan Cole showed his good and bad sides with an excellent strip of the ball from Fa’asalele just after the concession of a penalty with a dive in at the side.

Brown opened the second half with a clean break but with a try in the offing, the move fell between too stools as Lozowski and Care were dog-legged in their support line and the pass between the pair of them went to ground.

Much has been said and written about the financial plight of the Pacific Islands unions, compared with the riches of England.

A combined team from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga played England here in 2008, and the idea of the same entity being placed in Super Rugby is one to be supported. However when you appreciate the now defunct professional club at London Welsh required around £5million a year to even think of making a mark in England’s domestic Premiership, the sums that would be involved become a little clearer.


 Ewels’s second for his country added to England's lead 
 (Getty)

The respective match fees of around £22,000 per England player to £650 for a Samoan have been quoted as a handy reference point, but the scoreline was in nothing like the same ratio.

Jonny May went off with suspected concussion after taking a swinging arm to the head from Alapati Leiua.

And it took until the 61st minute for England to score again, with a pattern of deep angles of passing and rapid passing that is becoming familiar under Jones.

Replacement prop Harry Williams helped make ground before Ford fed Daly who cut inside past Kieron Fonotia and Ahsee Tuala for his fifth try in 16 England Tests, converted by Ford.


 It was a physical contest as ever at Twickenham 
 (Getty)

Hartley, the squad captain, came on with 17 minutes to play, as did the 19-year-old Nick Isiewke, who joined his Saracens club-mate Itoje in the England engine room.

But another splintered maul and a steadily increasing number of turnovers snaffled by the Samoans kept Hartley’s men fretting until Fa’asalele was shown a yellow card on 69 minutes for blatant fishing around a breakdown and England quickly exploited the one-man advantage with a try for Slade on a wide pass from a ruck, converted by Ford.

Still Samoa kept coming, engineering a try adroitly dotted down by Vui on the short side of a line-out, and brilliantly converted by Nanai-Williams.


 Daly scored the try of the game late 
 (AFP)

At the other end Daly had his second try, nimbly sidestepping four Samoans and burning off the replacement JJ Taulagi, before Semesa Rokoduguni grabbed England’s seventh try in the final play.

England: M Brown; J May (rep S Rokoduguni 47th min), H Slade, A Lozowski (P Francis 57), E Daly; G Ford (co-capt), D Care (B Youngs 57); E Genge (J Marler 46), J George (D Hartley 64), D Cole (H Williams 57), J Launchbury (C Lawes 31), C Ewels (N Isiekwe 64), M Itoje, C Robshaw (co-capt), S Simmonds.

Samoa: A Tuala (JJ Taulagi 71); P Perez, K Fonotia, A Leiua (R Lee-Lo 68), D Lemi; T Nanai-Williams, D Polataivao (M Matavao 75); Jordan Lay (James Lay 58), M Matu’u (M Leiataua 31), D Brighouse (H Sasagi 47), J Tyrell (F Lemalu 62), C Vui (capt), P Fa’asalele, TJ Ioane, J Lam (O Treviranus 68).

Referee: A Brace (Ireland).

Official attendance: 81,911