Things did not look good for England before to the start of the World Cup.
As a result of finishing in fourth place at the Six Nations, having a porous defense, receiving a slew of red cards, and losing the warm-up games to Wales, Ireland, and Fiji, expectations were at an all-time low.
However, a little more than three weeks later, the team captained by Steve Borthwick has ensured their place in the quarterfinals with a game to spare, in addition to winning their pool.
After picking up wins against Argentina, Japan, and Chile, England was able to take control of Pool D, ensuring that they would advance to the knockout stage of the competition even before they took the field.
After Japan's victory against Samoa, it became clear that England would not be overtaken as the team with the best record in their pool. During their time off earlier in the week, some of England's players were sighted at Disneyland with their families. This is the way that they achieved success.
Despite Curry's red card, England's game gets underway thanks to Ford.
When a team is struggling to find its form, it is frequently necessary to rely on the brilliant performance of individuals in order to motivate the group.
In England's first game of the tournament, which was against Argentina, their lone opponent of the highest level, George Ford stepped up to the plate.
The fly half The first half ended with Ford's team leading, 12-3, thanks to three drop goals that they kicked. Borthwick's team started out with a morale-boosting win, 27-10, thanks to England's commanding performance in the second half and Ford's 15 points scored from the penalty spot.
It might have all gone horribly wrong after Tom Curry was controversially sent off via bunker review for a clash of heads in the third minute. This was the first of several contentious talking points that have been sparked by the new system, and it has proven to be one of the most polarizing.
However, it was a traditional, hard-fought victory that reflected the straightforward manner in which England has traversed their pool.
Gained bonus points thanks to the victory over Brave Blossoms
Because of the manner in which England prevailed against Japan in week two, any dreams that they may play scintillating rugby after beating their primary pool adversaries in the second game were dashed. Japan was the team that England defeated.
The final score of 34-12 was not particularly close, but the bonus point for scoring four tries was not earned until the very last play of the game. Although the score was comfortable, the bonus point was not.
Lewis Ludlam scored England's lone try during a first half that was riddled with mistakes, but Rikiya Matsuda's conversion early in the second half brought Japan to within one point, bringing the score to 13-12.
After the ball had hit Joe Marler in the head, captain Courtney Lawes scored a try in what turned out to be a fortunate play, which provided the team some breathing room, and later on, they were able to expand their lead.
But England required a spark of inspiration from some other source. Henry Arundell, please step forward.
Arundell, rated five stars, is too spicy for Chile.
It was never going to be a question of whether or not England would win against Chile; rather, the focus would be on the manner in which they would accomplish so.
Because of Arundell's efforts, even in his maiden World Cup appearance, everything went smoothly and without a hitch. The 20-year-old player was responsible for five of England's 11 tries and, as a result, he climbed to the top of the scoring lists for the competition.
Marcus Smith, who was playing fullback, was also quite outstanding. He scored the game's finest try by running on to his own kick and dotting down.
After serving a suspension of four games, Owen Farrell returned to the team and played effectively in combination with Smith and Ford. As a result, Borthwick now has a pleasant dilemma on his hands when it comes to choosing his starting XV from among all of the creative talent that is currently available.
The victory of 71-0 guaranteed that England would advance to the round of eight if Japan were to defeat Samoa the following Thursday night, and this was exactly what happened: Japan won 28-22.
What should we expect next?
It is possible that England will play their last pool encounter against Samoa on October 7 with a rotated side. This would follow the victory over Chile, in which numerous first-team players were given the day off, followed by a week off.
This would mean that the squad's key players would have the opportunity to have three weeks off before their quarterfinal match against the side who finished second in Pool C, which is most likely to be Fiji.
Fiji won their final World Cup warm-up match against England by a score of 30-22 at Twickenham. Fiji also had a victory over Australia at this event, which means that England will need to perform at a higher level if they meet another team from Oceania.
If we were to win, we would face either the team that finished second in Pool B or the team that won Pool A. Given the current standings, those teams would be France and South Africa, respectively.
No matter what happens, things are about to get a lot more difficult for England.
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