ENGLAND reached the World Cup quarter–finals at Eden Park yesterday, but not before battling Scotland gave them a huge scare only to lose 16-12 to a Chris Ashton try with three minutes to go.
Needing to win by over seven points to reach the last eight, and all but eliminate England, Scotland were 12-3 ahead with 24 minutes to go and in sight of glory.
But struggling Jonny Wilkinson found his kicking form late in the match to deny what would have been a famous victory, sending over a penalty and a drop to put his side crucially within the seven–point margin before Ashton supplied the coup de grace.
Scotland picked up a bonus point, just keeping alive their hopes but need a near–miracle by Georgia beating Argentina by more than seven points today.
“It’s tough to take. We knew it would take an extraordinary effort to beat England today but once again we slipped at crucial times. It’s been the story of the last couple of weeks,” said Scotland captain Alastair Kellock. “I’m gutted.”
England finished the group stage unbeaten and move on to a quarter–final against Six Nations rivals France, whom they beat in the semi–finals in Paris four years ago.
“Full credit to Scotland, we knew this was going to be an incredibly tough game and they made it that way,” said England skipper Lewis Moody.
“We’ve come up on the right side of the result, but it was a tough game.”
Scotland coach Andy Robinson, who formerly coached England, brought in six new players with the captaincy reverting to lock Alastair Kellock, who was dropped for the Argentina game.
Playing in blustery, wet conditions in front of a 60,000 capacity crowd at Eden Park, two early handling errors put Scotland on the back foot, but the underdogs showed their intentions by running the ball from inside their own 22.
Martin Johnson’s men gave away a penalty at a scrum in trying to work a way clear and full-back Chris Paterson nailed the opening score from near the touchline.
Eight minutes later Parks made it 6-0 to the Scots with referee Craig Joubert needing a video referral to adjudge if his long–range effort had squeezed over the crossbar.
England fly–half Jonny Wilkinson narrowly missed three penalties in quick succession as his World Cup kicking woes continued, but he finally sent one between the posts after 34 minutes when Scotland were penalised at a ruck.
Scotland piled on the pressure yards short of the English line as the half drew to a close and gladly settled for a Parks drop-goal to turn at 9-3 ahead needing just another three–pointer to reach the last eight.
But it were England who started the stronger when they returned, Delon Armitage being bundled into touch five yards from the line after a 30m dash down the left wing.
Scotland kept up the pressure and when the English scrum was penalised, Paterson kept his nerve to put the Scots 12-3 ahead with 24 minutes to go.
That nine–point lead lasted only a minute as Wilkinson finally found his range with a huge drop kick.
Another Wilkinson drop attempt was charged down and almost led to a Scottish try, but immediately he landed a crucial penalty from out wide to bring England back to 12-9.
Scotland flung all they had into the last 10 minutes, but they were pinned back by the England scrum and Ashton scored the only try of the game with three minutes to go. Toby Flood converted.
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