France overcome England to line up Wales semi-final

Martin Johnson refused to answer questions over his future as England manager after his side crashed out of the Rugby World Cup with a 19-12 defeat at the hands of France, writes Channel 4 News sports producer Isla Glaister.

Les Bleus will meet Wales in next Saturday’s semi final in Auckland.

“I’m not getting into that conversation now,” Johnson said when asked about his future. “It’s not the right place or the right people or the right time. We’ll see. I’ll give it a couple of days, assess myself and how we’ve been.”

First-half tries from Vincent Clerc and Maxime Médard propelled France into a 16-0 lead. Ben Foden responded with a try in a better second half for England, but France edged further ahead with a drop goal from François Trinh-Duc.

Although Mark Cueto wrestled his way over the line for a second England try in the closing minutes, Johnson’s men limped out of the tournament.

England’s ‘bright future’

For the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Simon Shaw, Mike Tindall and captain Lewis Moody the defeat spells the likely end of their World Cup careers, but Johnson believes England’s future is bright heading towards hosting the 2015 tournament.

“I believe this team’s best days are ahead of it,” he said. “A lot of them are at their first World Cup and they’re better for the experience. We left ourselves with far too much to do. It’s brutal. France ultimately deserved to win.”

In contrast, Wales displayed an all-court game never before seen from them in the professional era to beat Ireland in their all Home Nations quarter-final.

Despite challenging, squally conditions, it was a stunning match that lived up to all the pre-match hype, crackling with intensity and physicality but also laced with high-quality rugby.

Welsh smash and grab

The opening half was a breathtaking affair, but it was essentially a class case of smash and grab by Wales, who bagged a superb early score and then soaked up the remorseless pressure Ireland applied.

Shane Williams openned the scoring for Wales after just two minutes. Rhys Priestland slotted his conversion through the wind and Wales were 7 points ahead in the blink of an eye.

This Wales is capable of going one better than the 1987 team and reaching the final.

But the story of the first half was one of Irish onslaught and Welsh defence as Wales made a total of 85 tackles to go in 10-3 ahead at half time.

Keith Earls scored for Ireland shortly after the restart to level the scores but they couldn’t build on that as Wales began to show both authority and panache.

Mike Philips caught the Irish defence napping with a great bit of opportunism to score Wales’s second try and restore their lead to 15-10.

Then Jonathan Davies finished off a superbly worked move to complete the victory 22-10.

Twenty-four years ago Wales reached the semi-finals on the only other occasion the World Cup has been held in New Zealand.

They succumbed miserably to the All Blacks on that occasion, but this Wales team is capable of going one better and reaching the final.