That's three: Mark Cueto
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Wings Mark Cueto and Chris Ashton both claimed hat-tricks as England smashed Romania 67-3 in Dunedin on Saturday.
England ran in a total of ten tries in a woefully one-sided encounter under the roof of the Otago Stadium.
Cueto grabbed his hat-trick of tries inside the first half-hour and Ashton added two more before half time to give England a 34-3 lead at the break.
The result moves England five points clear of Scotland - who face Argentina on Sunday - at the top of the group, virtually assuring their place in the quarter-finals.
Romania's only reply came through a first-half penalty from fly-half Marin Dumbrava.
The Northampton wing Ashton completed his own hat-trick in the second half after Ben Youngs, Ben Foden, Manu Tuilagi and Tom Croft had all joined in on the try-scoring festival.
It was one-way traffic from the first whistle and England will have every right to be pleased with their performance. Just how much can be read into the scoreline against a minnow side featuring a lot of tired legs is debatable, however.
But you can only play what is placed in front of you, and England dominated in every sector.
Most pleasing for manager Martin Johnson will be the massive improvement in England's distribution and option taking, with nine out of ten tries being scored by back-line players (even Croft's try came out wide).
England were seldom troubled by the Oaks in the line-outs, Tuilagi was prominent in midfield while captain Lewis Moody and number eight James Haskell both enjoyed strong games.
There will still be elements that will concern Johnson, notably the needless penalties England conceded early on which undermined an otherwise bright start.
Once the scoreboard was ticking however, England were much cleaner at the breakdown and largely eliminated the sloppy work that characterised last weekend's performance against Georgia.
One cannot help feel that Romania had one eye on Wednesday's clash with Georgia but you can't take anything away from England's best performance at the tournament thus far.
Man of the match: You can't argue with three tries in 26 minutes: Mark Cueto was not only deadly in his primary role of finishing but was solid on defence and looked dangerous with every touch of the ball.
Moment of the match: It took fifteen minutes for England to get their first try but from the moment Ashton cut through the Romanian line to put Cueto clear, the game was all but over. Having missed the wins over Argentina and Georgia due to a back injury, Cueto marked his return in emphatic fashion. England replaced Wilkinson with Toby Flood at half-time - a sign that the struggle for the number ten jersey is far from over.
Villain of the match: No nasty stuff worth reporting.
The scorers:
For England:
Tries: Cueto 3, Ashton 3, Youngs, Foden, Tuilagi, Croft
Cons: Wilkinson 3, Flood 3
Pen: Wilkinson
For Romania:
Pen: Dumbrava
England: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Mike Tindall, 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 James Haskell, 7 Lewis Moody (c), 6 Tom Croft, 5 Tom Palmer, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Steve Thompson, 1 Alex Corbisiero.
Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 David Wilson, 18 Simon Shaw, 19 Tom Wood, 20 Richard Wigglesworth, 21 Toby Flood, 22 Delon Armitage.
Romania: 15 Florin Adrian Vlaicu, 14 Stefan Eugen Ciuntu, 13 Ionel Cazan, 12 Iulian Dumitras, 11 Adrian Marian Apostol, 10 Marin Danut Dumbrava, 9 Lucian Mihai Sirbu, 8 Ovidiu Tonita, 7 Cosmin Aurel Ratiu, 6 Sandu Stelian Burcea, 5 Cristian Constantin Petre (capt), 4 Valentin Poparlan, 3 Silviu Florea, 2 Bogdan Zebega Suman, 1 Nicolae Nere.
Replacements: 16 Marius Tincu, 17 Paulica Ion, 18 Mihai Macovei, 19 Daniel Gabriel Ianus, 20 Valentin Nicolae Calafeteanu, 21 Csaba Minya Gal, 22 Catalin Marius Nicolae.
Venue: Otago Stadium, Dunedin
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant referees: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Simon McDowell (Ireland)
Television match official: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)
Comments
APV1 says...
Most importantly, we won. With a bonus point. Which makes us almost guaranteed to go through (I think mathematically it's possible for us not to) and also likely to top the Pool.
Secondly, we have also improved from game to game, which is important. We don't want to peak to early (just ask my wife!).
Thirdly our discipline was better. Again, room for improvement, but we actually listened to the ref and heeded his warnings. Made a nice change.
No, we are not getting carried away by the win, but it was good to get it. Still work to do and the hairy-arsed Jocks are always up for a rumble with us, so banana-skin-potential there...
Posted 10:28 26th September 2011
Rugbynut says...
Remember England were playing Romania! Nothing special was shown, my guess is England will go out in the quarters!
Posted 10:46 25th September 2011
pacfcrugby4eva says...
English rugby always was around their forwards. They played a lot of ' fat boy rugby'. Even when they lost, all the fans raved about was the English forwards. Lol. Now they've been ******* by the minnows in the forwards....too funny. Go Wallabies!
Posted 08:05 25th September 2011
Honestpom says...
Better from England today and our world cup really starts with the Scots next weekend. As an aside i was thinking today despite starting off with 5 props we were down to the bare 3 by kick off. If one had got ill overnight could have been embarrasing ( don't know if any English props are lurking at a nearby hotel as a precaution like Tom Waldrom ) having just 2 available at the match ( again presuming Stevens could not have played today, maybe he could have in an emergency ) What i was wondering is wether the seeming reluctance to name and bring in a permanent replacement for Sheridan means there is an outside chance he could be fit for a final in 4 weeks if England did manage to get that far - just a thought.
Posted 22:03 24th September 2011
jonesy2 says...
fair play england. job well done. haha mustve been an awesome game the only comments are about the horribleness of the english commentary. did you guys get to watch the AB's? feel you shoulve put 10 more tries on the romanians? nah youre out of the group, well done.
Posted 19:37 24th September 2011
redrosemark says...
@greenfarmroad
Well said. I know PV is an ex-England player but that's no excuse for acting like a one-eyed fan. He was so over-complimentary I had to remind myself who we were playing against.
Posted 17:11 24th September 2011
pierredelot1 says...
Phew the commentary was pretty vin ordinaire and the experts overpraised the England effort. Yes they won well, yes they were improved but it wasn't even the first fifteen for most of the time from the Romanians. Sure England look Ok when it gets out to the back three its just the route it takes to get there thats the worry. Tindall much as I like his bottle and commitment just fails to distribute properly and when you look at the bench you just wonder who will step up to the plate against the more organised defences of the S/H plus even the Welsh and Irish. You just can't help but think that choosing a coach to learn his trade in situ is not a professional way forward in a professional world. Few great players have been great coaches in any sport and even some of the punditry lacks wisdom. Just one day it would be great to watch a great game with incisive commentary and balance
followed by unbiased assessment and criticism. It's going to be a long wait. The camerawork was pretty poor too. But I stayed awake through this one.
Posted 16:32 24th September 2011
melkdave says...
@Islandpower
We all agree the short turnarounds for the smaller nations is a factor .Its one reason why i for one am not getting carried away with this win.So far its the blackmark on what is a very good RWC,If only the short turnarounds had been applied to every team (1 each) .I think the matches would have been even better and so far most have been very good
Posted 14:12 24th September 2011
greenfarmroad says...
My word the commentary on ITV was dreadful. Phil Vickery is adulatory and not in the least bit perceptive or analytic. He sounds like my mother talking about my brother (who she much prefers to me). Lets have a more balanced judgement please
Posted 14:00 24th September 2011
redrosemark says...
Looking at the back-slapping comments posted by bok supporters after their defeat of the world giant that is Namibia I wondered what the reaction would be if england supporters said the same things. Looking at papachinzo's nonsense it didn't even take that.
Posted 13:38 24th September 2011
Valiant_Effort says...
@papachinzo
You seem to be carrying quite a large chip there.
Although it must be said that while he may not be the best winger in the world, he's certainly the top try scorer of the tournament so far so he can't be all that bad.
Posted 13:16 24th September 2011
Bigtackle says...
Papachinzo.
WTF are you talking about? Did you read an article on another website stating England were the best team in the world and Ashton the best winger then accidentally put your comment on this website you simpleton?
Posted 12:06 24th September 2011
coronach says...
as with the matches SA-Namibia, NZ-Japan . . . nothing to get excited about. I don't think finding their mojo v Romania inspires much confidence. If you saw NZ and France play they were at far greater pace, intensity and skill than this match
Posted 12:05 24th September 2011
NHsaints says...
Ashtons last try was a beauty...
Posted 11:54 24th September 2011
lawynd says...
@papachinzo - you're the only muppet making statements like that; the ITV punditry team certainly didn't fall over themselves to give England undeserved platitudes and you won't catch any of us here doing the same.
Posted 11:52 24th September 2011
StunTheMullet says...
Hold the phone....that's Romania seen to then.....
Posted 11:50 24th September 2011
papachinzo says...
England beat Romania, so that means their automatically the best team in the world... Ashton 3 tries, automatically best winger in world Rugby .............................
Posted 11:21 24th September 2011
melkdave says...
Well a satifactory performance still alot to work on for England But getting there a more joined up performance between the forwards and backs With some really good plays .Romainia where physical but England dealt with them well and thankl god a much reduced penalty count.England have put a marker down at last and about time .Not getting carried away though Scotland will still be a big game LOL.Lots of rivalry there and im sure my cousins will want bragging rights ,same as me lol
Posted 08:58 24th September 2011
fozza says...
See, I told you they wouldn't win by 65.... But seriously, due to working have only read the live text updates, more reason for England to be cheerful but from what I read this should have been much higher and once again there was some sloppy play. Can't see there being this many gaps in Scotland's defence. Still, great result and we're on the upward grade, which is what you want!
Posted 08:53 24th September 2011
Jediboy says...
Much better from England. But it should have been really.
Looked more like the England I was hoping to see and I'm hopeful this is a sign of things to come. Although the games will be much harder from now so I suspect games will be a lot tighter.
Well done England on another victory.
Posted 08:53 24th September 2011