Sport 27-10-2003 16-Man England Struggle Against Samoa who: England Rugby Team what: May face inquiry over illegal substitution after narrowly defeating Samoans where: Melbourne, Australia when: Yesterday snippet: "England could still win the World Cup next month," says The Guardian`s Robert Kitson from Melbourne, "but even their captain Martin Johnson did not sound terribly convinced as Melbourne`s clocks ticked towards midnight." "We`re not going to beat teams in the knockout stages if we`re making that many mistakes," he admits after beating the Samoans 35-22 despite Jonny Wilkinson missing three kicks and England going 0-10 down in the early stages before a Neil Back try began to reverse their fortunes. "We`ve got to look at ourselves as players and get ourselves sorted out." "The South Sea islanders are so broke they had to borrow a scrummaging machine to practice," says The Sun`s Tony Roche. "Yet they had England’s multi- million pound machine huffing and puffing for an hour. Late tries by Iain Balshaw and Phil Vickery finally secured Clive Woodward’s men top spot in Pool C." The BBC reports that "World Cup organisers are investigating why England briefly had 16 players on the pitch in the match against Samoa. Late in the game, substitute Dan Luger joined the action while centre Mike Tindall was being treated for an injury but none of his team-mates appeared to leave the field." Elsewhere, Scotland lost 51-9 to France and Wales beat Italy 27-15 in pool B, while Ireland beat Argentina 16-15 in pool A. England are likely to play Wales in the quarter-finals; if Scotland go through, they`re likely to face Australia, who play Ireland in the final game of pool A. [... more]

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