After all that England are still in the tournament, despite being hard pushed in the face of some uncompromising Samoan tackling. The defending champions even scored an unlikely bonus point after Sackey dove over in the corner in the final seconds of the match, a scenario that looked so unlikely as their opponents pegged them back to just a four point lead during the second period.

Samoa are now definitely out, so it all comes down to the final game between England and Tonga to see who will come second in Pool A behind South Africa.

Today's performances would seem to indicate that it is England have the most to fear from that clash. Still cumbersome in the pack, and lacking the explosion of pace and ideas behind it.

Compare that to how the Tongans played against the Springboks earlier in the day and you could even make a case for the Sea Eagles going into that match as slight favourites on current form.

The Pacific islanders have plenty of power and drive from their pack, and enough pace in the back line to cause anyone problems. If they reproduce today's performance next Friday, England could well be first defending champions to fail to progress from the group stages in the competition's history.