England keep party going on the field

England 41 Georgia 10:SAY WHAT you like about England's leisure activities but they are doing the business at weekends. If this hardly qualified as an award-winning performance it did at least maintain England's 100 per cent record in Pool B and came complete with a try bonus point. Given they are one of only six unbeaten teams left in the tournament, halfway through the pool stages, they could be in significantly worse shape.

Georgia, to their huge credit, played their hearts out. But, goodness knows, England made life hard for themselves for an hour, giving away a barrel-load of penalties and only pulling clear once their opponents started to show the effects of two physical matches inside 96 hours. For a second pool game in a row, England had reason to be grateful that their opponents did not kick all their goals.

And yet. Ireland’s win against Australia has opened up all sorts of enticing possibilities for the Northern Hemisphere sides. If England can hold their nerve against Scotland on Saturday week, they will finish top of their pool and will potentially not have to face a Tri-Nations team until the final, should they make it. It is the juiciest of incentives to keep on doing precisely what they are doing.

Would New Zealand fancy playing them on a wet night in Auckland, with all the psychological pressure stacked on local shoulders? Possibly not, particularly if the English defence continues to stand tall. One try conceded in two games is an encouraging statistic, particularly as England have spent large chunks of both matches on the back foot.

On the other hand, as the team manager, Martin Johnson, is aware, England will not last long against stronger opposition if they concede as many penalties as they did here. Nine in the first 30 minutes alone is enough to make any coach furious, and Johnson’s players were left in no doubt about his displeasure.

“You’d have thought you’d at least get a smile out of him but no,” said Shontayne Hape, the scorer of England’s first two tries. “Even during the game you could see him shouting and screaming.”

After his laissez-faire public response to the events in Queenstown last week, it is reassuring to see Johnson the enforcer re-emerging. Sloppy habits will always catch teams out eventually, even if they initially dodge the bullet. England barely visited Georgia’s 22 in the first half, and spent far too much time in their own. Had Merab Kvirikashvili not missed five penalties, Georgia could have been leading with 20 minutes left. Scotland, and others, will be far less generous.

Even England’s backs are losing patience with their pack’s profligacy. “For a back, it’s really frustrating to see the forwards giving away so many penalties,” said the scrumhalf Ben Youngs. Traditionally, it is the forwards who despair of the softies in the backs but Youngs had a legitimate gripe. New Zealand, had they been in Georgia’s boots, would have been out of sight by half-time.

It was just as well England did manage a couple of early tries, Hape scoring both of them. First, he spotted a fourth-minute gap at the side of a ruck and ran 40 metres unopposed to the line; the centre’s second exploited Georgia’s temporary reduction to 14 defenders.

The Lelos otherwise enjoyed territorial superiority and fully deserved their try just before half-time, scored from a scrum by their persevering No 8, Dimitri Basilaia.

Outhalf Toby Flood engineered the third and fourth English tries that settled the contest. Good hands worked Delon Armitage over on the left, while Manu Tuilagi also left the Georgian defence clutching at thin air.

Three minutes later, Tom Wood’s clean break sent Chris Ashton racing clear, the familiar swallow-diving finish showing the wing’s relief at ending a seven-month scoring drought in an England shirt. Ashton also wriggled over in the closing seconds, and insisted later he had suffered only a hyper-extended elbow in the act of scoring. To the untrained eye it appeared he had also jolted his left shoulder joint; England will be extremely keen not to lose him for an extended period.

ENGLAND: Foden; Ashton, Tuilagi, Hape, Armitage; Flood, Youngs; Stevens, Hartley, Cole, Shaw, Palmer, Wood, Moody, Haskell. Replacements: Croft for Moody (58 mins), Thompson for Hartley (61 mins), Corbisiero for Cole (63 mins), Simpson for Youngs, Banahan for Tuilagi (both 67 mins), Cole for Stevens (75 mins).

GEORGIA: Gigauri; Machkhaneli (Khmaladze, h-t), Kacharava, Zibzibadze, Todua (Datunashvili, 67); Kvirikashvili, Abuseridze; Khinchagishvili, Bregvadze, Kubriashvili, Zedginidze, Maisuradze, Sutiashvili, Gorgodze, Basilaia (Berishvili, 61). Replacements: Zirakashvili for Kubriashvili (23 mins), Chkhaidze for Sutiashvili (31 mins), Shvelidze for Khinchagishvili (56 mins), Berishvili for Basilaia (61 mins), Samkharadze for Abuseridze (63 mins), Datunashvili for Todua (67 mins).

Referee: J Kaplan (South Africa).