Steve Borthwick’s side, who dispelled pre-tournament jitters with a comprehensive 27-10 win over Argentina in their opening match, racked up a fourth win over a Japan team far from its 2019 vintage when they won their four pool matches at their home World Cup.
But they again looked like a shadow of their former selves, producing a litany of handling mistakes and wayward out-of-hand kicking, and generally failing to reproduce the game management needed to boss the match at the Stade de Nice. “It was probably not the prettiest watching it. It’s really hard to play with the ball in these conditions. These late kick-offs, the ball is greasy. You’ve got to find ways to break a team down but we got there in the end.”
A Rikiya Matsuda cross-kick went too long, but the fly-half kicked a resulting penalty to draw the sides level. After booting the leather off the ball, Ford opted to go for the corner in the dying minutes of the first half, but a Jamie George knock-on brought that offensive to a rapid end.There was an electric start to the second period as England came haring out, but an insistency on kicking gifted the ball back to the Japanese, who withstood the pressure.
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