With Fiji breathing down their necks in Marseille, Steve Borthwick’s players took the game by the scruff of the neck
Ten minutes left to play in Marseille, and the game is slipping away from England, taking with it their improbable shot at winning this World Cup. They had been 14 points up just moments ago and the Stade Vélodrome was so quiet, in those moments, that the crowd were throwing Mexican waves. It would have been stretching the point to say you could hear a pin drop, but if you strained your ears you could hear the bones pop and the bodies flop. And then Fiji finally started to play the way only they can. In six minutes they broke the line twice and scored tries both times, 24-10 became 24-22.
The English didn’t stop to watch the conversion. They were in the one place no team want to be when there’s 10 minutes left to play, when you’re just two points up and the semi-finals are on the line. In a huddle under their own posts. Maro Itoje was first, and already calling his exhausted teammates in to join him there, Courtney Lawes was last to arrive, and when he had made it Itoje pressed his finger to his lips and told everyone to shut up as Owen Farrell stepped forward. Away by the 22, Simione Kuruvoli was lining up his kick, while Farrell was talking, quietly, calmly, forcefully, about exactly how they were going to get out of this.
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