Jermaine McGillvary continued his impressive World Cup to help England cruise into the semi-finals with a 36-6 win over Papua New Guinea.
The Huddersfield winger touched down twice, taking his total to 11 tries in 10 appearances, and put his centre Kallum Watkins over for two others as Wayne Bennett’s men repeated the scoreline from their final group game against France a week earlier.
England were once more far from perfect but, after watching New Zealand slip up in their quarter-final, will be relieved to get through a bruising battle to set up a showdown with Tonga in Auckland next Saturday.
Jermaine McGillvary helped England through to the semi-finals
Tweet of the match
Star man – Jermaine McGillvary
McGillvary has taken over from team-mate Ryan Hall as the world’s best winger during a fantastic tournament in which he has scored six tries in four matches. More than that, the explosive Huddersfield winger produced another series of relieving runs that took some of the workload off the forwards.
Key moment
Papua New Guinea had a chance to open the scoring when centre Kato Ottio dropped the ball over the line. Had he touched down, the score would have put an extra spring in the Kumuls’ step and England would have faced an even tougher battle to get on top.
Ratings
England: Gareth Widdop 6/10, Jermaine McGillvary 9, Kallum Watkins 8, John Bateman 5, Ryan Hall 6; Kevin Brown 6, Luke Gale 7, Chris Hill 6, Josh Hodgson 7, James Graham 8, Sam Burgess 8, Elliott Whitehead 7, Sean O’Loughlin 7. Interchange: Alex Walmsley 8, Tom Burgess 6, Ben Currie, 6, James Roby 8.
What’s next
World Cup semi-final (Auckland) – England v Tonga (Saturday, November 25).
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