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England's returning Farrell 'has fun' in Chile rout

2023-09-24 02:27
England captain Owen Farrell said on Saturday he had fun as the 2003 winners hammered Chile 71-0 to edge closer to...
England's returning Farrell 'has fun' in Chile rout

England captain Owen Farrell said on Saturday he had fun as the 2003 winners hammered Chile 71-0 to edge closer to the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals.

Fly-half Farrell, who returned to action after being suspended for his country's first two matches of the tournament, moved within a point of Jonny Wilkinson's England points record.

"It is always enjoyable to pull on an England shirt, but to do it like we did today was good fun," Farrell said. 

"We want to keep on progressing at everything and that is the feeling we are getting from the group."

England have a two-week break before their final group game against Samoa on October 7

"There was a lot of changes today and we will enjoy this and we will go into the break and come back again," Farrell added. 

England ended the victory with three playmakers on the field as George Ford came on from the bench to add to fly-half Farrell and livewire Marcus Smith, who was playing his first game for club or country at full-back.

"There are two good players on the pitch there and it is always good to have communication," Farrell said.

"That is one thing we wanted to get better at, the whole team has had the attitude of improving," he added.

England were forced to wait until the end of the first quarter to break the deadlock against a disciplined defensive effort from Chile.

"After 20 minutes we were still at 0-0, that was a good thing, it was our aim," Chile head coach Pablo Lemoine said.

"England are at a different level, they are competing to win the title," the former Uruguay prop added.

Chile captain Martín Sigren said the match was "a tough lesson" but that his nation were progressing.

"Four years ago we were getting the same result against Canada and the USA. We were losing games against Brazil. Four years later, look at us, we're here, so I have to hold on to that," he said.

"We will keep on working, maybe four years later the results will be different."

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