England swing into semi-final

England:1, Rest of the world: 2. On the weekend that England's three major sporting teams took on the best opposition in the world, only the rugby players kept the flag flying.

In what their manager, Jack Rowell, called "the most emotional experience of my life", they reached the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup in South Africa with a last-gasp win over the defending champions, Australia. Two minutes and 38 seconds into injury time, Rob Andrew launched a drop- goal attempt from 50 metres that gave England a 25-22 win.

England had established a 13-3 lead before half-time, thanks to a try from Tony Underwood, but the Australians went ahead twice in the last 20 minutes only to be overhauled by the kicking of Andrew.

In yesterday's other quarter-final, Scotland were beaten 48-30 in Pretoria by New Zealand.England's footballers lost 3-1 to the world champions, Brazil, at Wembley, while the cricketers were beaten by nine wickets by the West Indies at Headingley.

Sport, pages 21-28.