Fans left reeling by England's World Cup dichotomy

LILLE, France : Spare a thought for the England fans drifting around Lille on Sunday, not knowing whether to laugh or cry as their team prepares for a very winnable World Cup quarter-final on the back of an absolutely wretched display against Samoa.

England scraped home 18-17 with a late Danny Care try to make it four wins out of four but were outplayed in many areas for much of the match.

They competed well physically and in the set-piece, which should be the minimum expectation, but when it came to ambition in attack, accuracy and even the execution of the most basic skills, they were second-best other than right at the start and end.

Not long after the game finished, fans packed the local bars to watch Ireland put Scotland to the sword playing a brand of rugby unrecognisable to anything seen for years and probably not even in the peaks of 2003 and 2019 by the men in white.

And yet, by the time England play their quarter-final in Marseille next Sunday, probably against Fiji, Ireland could be on their way home if they come out the on the wrong side of their monster match up with New Zealand.

One of France and South Africa will also depart, joining Scotland and probably Australia in the "watching from home complaining about the unfair pool draw" pity party.

If England perform next week as they did against Samoa they will almost certainly be gone too, but they surely can't be as bad and, as coach Steve Borthwick said when searching for some positives, they will benefit from Saturday's hard game after a two-week break.

England went into the match already assured of top spot and subconsciously, however much a team tries to overcome it, it is very difficult to find the same intensity as when everything is on the line, as it will