Lethargic England fade from view

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Any hopes that England might be able to upset the predicted domination of the big four were over before they'd started, and it wasn't against one of the big four where their decisive defeat happened.

The six-try mauling at the hands of Samoa was painful viewing. England started the game relatively well in defence but after Samoa produce some excellent rugby, and had a bit of good fortune, to go two tries up, the Red Rose vanished without a trace.

Their lethargic attack never looked like breaking down Manusamoa's defence, and the hosts increasingly left shoulders absent in tackles as the defeat became convincing, before it turned into a fullon rout. Even when Samoa were reduced to six men England didn't look like scoring, and wouldn't manage to until they beat Sri Lanka 47-19 later in the day.

It was not as convincingly as New Zealand (63-5), and having to produce an identical 34-point winning margin over the Kiwis as they had conceded to Samoa would have been a miracle akin to Japan's win against South Africa in the 2015 XV-a-side World Cup.

In the event, England showed more spirit and quality than they had against Samoa, but after leading 5-0 at the break New Zealand cruised to a routine 20-0 win.

It was the previous evening where the group was settled, with Samoa succumbing to a late Caleb Tangitau try as New Zealand snatched the group with a 19-17 win, although the Samoans did go through as they too saw off the group's whipping boys Sri Lanka.