A ruthless England side hammered Uruguay 111-13 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane to finish top of Pool C in the Rugby World Cup, with fullback Josh Lewsey becoming the first English player to score five tries in a RWC fixture.
In effect, Uruguay won their World Cup on Tuesday when they beat fellow Pool C minnows Georgia 24-12 to avoid the Pool Wooden Spoon. Nobody expected the South Americans to challenge the might of England and it didn't take long for the tournament favourites to cross the Uruguayan tryline.
England immediately put the South Americans under pressure at the kick-off as they turned possession over and stretched the defence out wide. "Los Teros" had no way of keeping tabs on the English runners and when flanker Lewis Moody eventually crossed for the try, he still had three runners outside of him. Veteran fly-half Paul Grayson stretched the lead with the conversion.
Uruguay, although outclassed, refused to give in and took the game to their opponents and were rewarded with a penalty a minute later. Fullback Juan Menchaca slotted the kick through the posts to close the gap to four points.
England then began to rush their play and the errors began to mount up -- the ball was knocked forward frequently and their passes began to find nothing but air, but perhaps most disturbing for coach Clive Woodward, was the number of turnover ball the highly-rated English forwards conceded. Despite that poor period of play, however, Lewsey soon picked up his first try of the night when he joined the backline out wide and charged over the goalline.
After the re-start, England were awarded a scrum on the half-way line and the ball was swung wide to winger Iain Balshaw, who beat the defence for pace to pick up his first of two tries on the night.
Balshaw was back in the action 60 seconds later when he danced his way through a ragged "Los Teros" defence and steamed over for a second as the floodgates threatened to open up.
Uruguay refused to stand back, however, and they provided the crowd with something to cheer about when they opted to kick for touch deep inside the English 22 after being awarded a penalty. The South Americans then spent the next 10 minutes camped on the England line as they bashed away desperately at a defence that refused to open up.
England absorbed the pressure and repelled the Uruguayan charge and then had the game wrapped up before the break after Mike Catt went over following a quick throw at the line-out, which put Balshaw into space and gave the winger plenty of time to link up with Catt for the final pass.
Another try to scrum-half Andy Gomarsall meant England went into the break at 42-6 up.
The second half, while all England, provided the highlight of the night for Uruguay when big tighthead prop Pablo Lemoine crashed over for their only try. Uruguay, to the delight of all watching, chipped the ball into touch after claiming a penalty and drove the England pack toward their line. Lemoine then charged at the English defenders like a raging bull and steamed right through Danny Grewcock and then over an unlucky Joe Worsley to dot down.
It would be the last time the South Americans had a sniff of the tryline, however, as the England team took control. What followed was an ominous sign for all tournament contenders as the English ran riot over a tiring Uruguayan outfit.
Starting with a great solo effort in midfield by South African-born centre Stuart Abbott, the England backline reduced the opposition defence to tatters as they ran in a total of nine tries in the last 30 minutes to seal their spot at the top of Pool C and a quarter-final clash against the Pool D runner-ups.
While the result was never in doubt, England signalled their intent and despite a couple of disciplinary lapses and a display of petulance by Worsley when he was sent from the field for a high tackle, they achieved the win in an admirable fashion and would have put the entire 16-man fiasco, which overshadowed their RWC campaign during the past week, firmly behind them.
Although Worsley -- who had a go at the crowd when he was sin-binned -- would not have helped their standings in the popularity stakes.
Man of the match: Iain Balshaw was a definite contender with his two tries, as was Mike Catt, who made a welcome return to Test rugby with a brace, but in the end Josh Lewsey at fullback was simply superb. His reading of the game was exemplarily and his angles of running were superb and with five tries, he could not be passed over.
Moment of the match: England ran in some superb tries, but we all knew they had this game wrapped up before the teams even lined up for the anthems. Pablo Lemoine's bullocking charge on the line was superb and the way he shrugged off the tackles of Danny Grewcock and Joe Worsley are likely to go down in Uruguayan legend.
Villain of the match: Joe Worsley's high tackle two minutes from time was completely unnecessary and his petulance as he marched off the field, sarcastically cheering the crowd on, reflected badly on the entire English team and highlighted, for many, exactly why the Six Nations champions are so unpopular at the tournament.
The Teams:
England: 1 Jason Leonard, 2 Dorian West, 3 Phil Vickery (c), 4 Martin Corry, 5 Danny Grewcock, 6 Joe Worsley, 7 Lewis Moody, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio, 9 Andy Gomarsall, 10 Paul Grayson, 11 Dan Luger, 12 Mike Catt, 13 Stuart Abbott, 14 Iain Balshaw, 15 Josh Lewsey
Reserves: Kyran Bracken, Will Greenwood, Martin Johnson, Jason Robinson, Julian White
Unused: Ben Kay, Steve Thompson
Uruguay: 1 Eduardo Berruti, 2 Diego Lamelas, 3 Pablo Lemoine, 4 Juan Alvarez, 5 Juan Carlos Bado, 6 Nicolas Brignoni, 7 Nicolas Grille, 8 Rodrigo Capo Ortega, 9 Juan Campomar, 10 Sebastian Aguirre, 11 Joaquin Pastore, 12 Diego Aguirre (c), 13 Joaquin De Freitas, 14 Jose Viana, 15 Juan Menchaca
Reserves: Juan Alzueta, Rodrigo Sanchez, Guillermo Storace, Emiliano Caffera, Marcelo Gutierrez, Juan Andres Perez, Diego Reyes
Attendance: 46233
Referee: Williams n.
Points Scorers:
England
Tries: Lewsey O.J. 5, Balshaw I.R. 2, Abbott S.R. 1, Catt M.J. 2, Luger D.D. 1, Gomarsall A.C.T. 2, Moody L.W. 1, Greenwood W.J.H. 1, Robinson J.T. 2
Conv: Catt M.J. 2, Grayson P.J. 11
Uruguay
Tries: Lemoine P.A. 1
Conv: Menchaca J.R. 1
Pen K.: Menchaca J.R. 2
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