England captain Owen Farrell said his were “scrappy” as they came back to edge Samoa 18-17 in the Rugby World Cup on Saturday after trailing by nine points with half an hour to play.

The 2003 winners were already guaranteed top spot in Pool D before kick-off and needed Danny Care’s late try to beat the Pacific Islanders, who were already knocked out.

Farrell kicked two penalties and a conversion in Lille as he broke Jonny Wilkinson’s points record for the country before next Sunday’s quarter-final with, in all likelihood, Fiji.

“It was scrappy, it did not feel like the best from us,” Farrell told ITV. 

“All credit to Samoa and how they came out and got at us, it was tough to deal with at times and we did not deal with it discipline-wise and with mistakes.”

Read full story on sport.timesofmalta.com

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