Farrell kicks England into semis with classic win over Fiji

MARSEILLE, France: Captain Owen Farrell kicked 20 points to lead England to a gripping 30-24 World Cup quarter-final victory over Fiji on Sunday as the Islanders surged back from 14 points down before the captain slotted a drop goal and penalty to win the game.

Centres Manu Tuilagi and Joe Marchant scored tries as England led 24-10 early in the second half on the back of their most impressive performance for years.

However, in classic style, Fiji scored two tries in four minutes to change the mood, only for England, thanks to surging runs by outstanding number eight Ben Earl, to regain a lead they held on to in a dramatic finale.

England reached their sixth World Cup semi-final and will go in search of a fifth final appearance when they meet France or South Africa.

"For large parts of the game we controlled it," said England coach Steve Borthwick. "There was obviously a spell where Fiji scored two back-to-back tries, which Fiji can do probably better than anyone else in the world. What we needed to do then was stay composed and find a way to get back ahead on the scoreboard and that's what the players did."

At the same ground 16 years ago Fiji had a similar experience, fighting back to go level with South Africa in the quarter-final and they again fell just short of becoming the first Tier Two team to reach the semis.

Emotional coach Simon Raiwalui took a positive view, however.

"This is a different Fiji team and I think it’s the start of something special," he said. "We made a couple of mistakes today, we didn’t take our chances and we paid for it, but I couldn’t be prouder."

For most of the match, a fired-up England were unrecognisable from the team who looked so lacklustre against Samoa last week.

They blasted out of the