England into World Cup quarter-finals as Japan beat Samoa

Japan survived a ferocious fightback by 14-man Samoa to win 28-22 in Toulouse on Thursday, tightening their grip on second place in World Cup Pool D and ensuring leaders England would reach the quarter-finals.

Japan were more disciplined in defence and more dangerous in attack as they built a 17-point lead with a man advantage with 15 minutes to go. But Samoa struck twice as Japan ended up clinging on to their World Cup hopes.

Japan can ensure they join England in the quarter-finals if they beat Argentina on the last day of pool matches on October 8. Samoa wrap up their campaign against England.

"It is knockout footy for us, we have got to try beat a tough Argentina team next week," said Japan full-back Lomano Lemeki.

Thursday's game pivoted on a period of 16 minutes on either side of half time which brought three tries, two for Japan and one for Samoa and three cards, one for Japan and two for Samoa, the second of which, for Ben Lam, turned into red.

"It is tough to be down with the red card and it is unfortunate for Ben Lam, Japan exploited the advantage and they won," said Samoa coach Seilala Mapusua.

"It is very concerning, we have got to be tactically correct or we will be punished. We are hopeful we can get it right next week," he said of his side's ill-discipline.

Japan took the lead after 13 minutes, swinging the ball across the field for flanker Pieter Labuschagne to smash through the remnants of the stretched Samoan defence by the left corner flag.

For the next 20 minutes, Samoa emphatically won the close physical battles, dominating the rucks and mauls and drawing a string of penalties but scoring only a 25th-minute penalty kicked by Alai D'Angelo Leuila. Rikiya Matsuda quickly replied.

Japan instead struck the next