England winger Henry Arundell celebrates after scoring a try Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Winger Henry Arundell scored five tries on his World Cup debut as England tore up the safety-first playbook from their first two matches with a crushing 71-0 defeat of Chile to give coach Steve Borthwick a selection quandary.
England, who made 12 changes from the starting line-up against Japan, scored 11 tries, including five for 20-year-old winger Arundell, equalling an England record, albeit against the lowest ranked team in the tournament who are playing at their first World Cup.
The changes included captain Owen Farrell returning from suspension but arguably it was another fist-five, Marcus Smith, starting for the first time at fullback, who stole the limelight, with flashes of the spontaneous touches England have missed in recent months that made a strong case for his inclusion in the team later in the tournament.
Although England can start planning for a quarter-final in Marseille against Wales, Australia or Fiji, they are not mathematically assured of progress as defeat to Samoa in their final game in two weeks, combined with other results, could leave them in a three-way tie at the top which would be decided on points difference
They top the standings on 14 points. Samoa and Japan have five, Argentina four and Chile are yet to register after three defeats.
Meanwhile Portugal were left to rue what might have been after they were denied a first ever World Cup win in their 18-18 Pool C draw with Georgia, but captain Tomas Appleton believes the result is something they can build on in the future.
Leading 18-13 with two minutes left, replacement scrumhalf Pedro Lucas gave away a needless penalty that allowed Georgia to equalise, before Portugal's Nuno Sousa Guedes missed a kick with the final play of the game to win it.
"Of course we are happy with the result, but not happy with the performance itself," Appleton said. "But I think we have really built a base for the future, especially next week (when Portugal play Australia).
Portugal are at their first World Cup since 2007, and their second overall, and Appleton hopes entertaining games such as this one will inspire a new generation to take up the oval ball in a country where soccer reigns supreme.
"We want young kids to start to play rugby, to have a team they can follow. In the next few years we want to have a great team and be on top of the world," he said.
-Reuters