England vs Uruguay match report: No consolation as England rue missed chance

England 60 Uruguay 3

Jack Nowell celebrates with Henry Slade after scoring one of his three tries against Uruguay (Getty Images)

Nick Easter and Jack Nowell collected hat-tricks of tries as England cantered to 10 in all, but none of it was ever going to erase the suffocating atmosphere of weightier events unfolding elsewhere.

As the host nation’s team made a rare venture to the north-west with their World Cup fate already known, it was a sideshow given a grand stage.

Rubbing salt into England’s open wounds, yesterday’s other Pool A result at Twickenham had left Wales on 13 points to England’s 11 after this win.

It underlined how, if Chris Robshaw and his team had taken the much-debated three points near the end of their match a fortnight ago against Wales, and drawninstead of losing, then they would have progressed to the quarter-finals with Australia.

So what might have been an evening spent in eager anticipation, was an exercise in stiff upper lips and making the best of a botched job. It was England’s second Test meeting with Uruguay, not that “Los Teros” would remember the first fondly: a 17-try 111-13 beating in Brisbane in the 2003 World Cup.

That night, Mike Catt scored two tries for England; here, he was chivvying the troops pre-match as normal whereas his fellow assistant coaches Graham Rowntree and Andy Farrell were banned from contact with the players as punishment for harassing the referee and touch judges at Twickenham during last week’s decisive loss to Australia. It was an isolated reminder of the more prevalent disciplinary problems in the 2011 tournament in New Zealand.

On the field, another similarity was England departing the tournament with George Ford and Owen Farrell paired in midfield, where four years ago much tinkering with the No.12 jersey was eventually resolved by fielding Jonny Wilkinson and Toby Flood together. There’s nothing new under the floodlights, as the saying almost goes.

England had four fly-halves in all in their back division (counting the full-back Alex Goode at a stretch), and Pool A’s makeweight opponents at their mercy. Penalties were immediately kicked to touch instead of for points – no rancorous controversy over these for the captain - and a quick attack to the wide channels brought the opening try after six minutes. Jack Nowell – one of six England players making their first appearances of the World Cup in a much-changed team – received the ball via Henry Slade on the left, booted it ahead and Anthony Watson showed his lightning pace to outsprint the cover.

Farrell had retained the goal-kicking responsibility and after landing the conversion, he repeated the trick when Nick Easter extended his record as England’s oldest try-scorer, rumbling over in the 18th minute from a line-out drive. Five minutes later, the 37-year-old had another try, with Farrell converting again, and at 21-3 – Felipe Berchesi kicked an early penalty for England offside ahead of a clearing kick – the crowd had settled into willing appreciation over full-on rapture.

What they had a right to expect was the likes of Slade, another unleashed too late, where Sam Burgess had been selected ahead of him before, to pick easy holes. But even with a series of 20 phases 10 minutes before the break, England fumbled instead of popping over through gaps.

A line-out drive that fell apart and a turnover while Uruguay were down to 14 men with Santiago Vilaseca in the sin bin just before the break were evidence of unfocused minds and bodies.

The cynics’ debate was whether this was Manchester’s third most appealing sports event of the day, after the Super League Grand Final and Terry “Turbo” Flanagan defending his world lightweight boxing title. Some ultra-cynics were even making a case for Bury and Oldham’s football matches. Certainly Uruguay, unlike their soccer counterparts, are no draw, ranked down in 19th, which in world terms is almost nowhere.

England’s fourth, bonus-point try came with a wry smile two minutes into the second half. A scrum ploy England have been attempting to pull off for weeks, dating to the summer friendlies when hope was high, finally paid off with a line of backs fanning out in an arc and Danny Care, Ford and Goode fed Watson his second try, improved by Farrell for a lead of 28-3.

With Vilaseca back on, Uruguay allowed England to do as they pleased at a lineout yet when Care made a break, James Haskell flopped on to a ruck that was barely being defended to continue the irksome English habit of conceding silly penalties. It needed Slade to lift the mood with a chargedown of Agustin Ormaechea’s box-kick, a couple of hack-ons and his first Test try. In the 57th minute Nowell had his career fifth, on the end of a counter-attack by Goode and Care, and before the hour Easter completed his hat-trick for 43-3.

Uruguay went close to a try with a 13-man maul from a line-out, before England’s regular full-back Mike Brown entered from the bench to a big reception, lightening the mood music a little. Anyone asking for The Smiths, though, would have been directed to the All Blacks with Conrad, Aaron and Ben leading them through as predictable winners of a different pool. Heaven knows, we’re miserable now.

Nowell’s second try came from Care’s looped miss-pass, and the wing had his third from Jonathan Joseph and Slade running free as the score nudged past the half century.

We have seen throughout this tournament that World Cup routs are not what they used to be in terms of points, but this was a rout, all the same, completed by a penalty try.

Robshaw was asked if he thought this was his last act, captaining his country. “Who knows? I love this role, I love playing with this group of players. There’s a huge amount of potential in that squad.”