England 36-20 Tonga

England (19) 36

Tries: Sackey 2, Tait, Farrell

Cons: Wilkinson 2

Pens: Wilkinson 2

Drop-goals: Wilkinson 2

Tonga (10) 20

Tries: Hufanga, Pole

Cons: Hola 2

Pens: Hola 2

Champions England clinched a World Cup quarter-final against Australia with an ultimately convincing win over Tonga.

Tonga opened the scoring through Sukanaivalu Hufanga's sparkling try but two Paul Sackey scores helped England into a 19-10 half-time lead.

Pierre Hola's second penalty saw Tonga reduce the lead to six points.

But Mathew Tait and Andy Farrell went over to secure victory before Hale T Pole's late consolation, while Jonny Wilkinson kicked 16 points in Paris.

The England fly-half now has 222 World Cup points and is just five behind Gavin Hastings, who is the competition's all-time leading scorer with 227.

No champions had ever failed to reach the knock-out stages at the World Cup, but following their dismal start to the tournament there had been real fears England would crash out before the last eight.

They had showed signs of life in the win over Samoa but Tonga had beaten their Pacific Island rivals and then pushed South Africa right to the last whistle.

The pre-match script suggested the Sea Eagles' pace and power was likely to trouble England initially before the defending champions' set-piece ability, superior tactical game and greater fitness began to bear fruit, and so it proved.

Tonga threatened from the first whistle with Epi Taione and Finau Maka blasting into the England midfield and they took the lead after 10 minutes.

There looked to be little danger when Mark Cueto fielded a poor Tonga kick but the Sale winger dithered and Tonga captain Nili Latu wrapped him up.

Cueto held on as the ruck formed and Hola stepped up to drill the penalty between the posts, but England were level within three minutes after Tonga handled in a ruck and Wilkinson opened his account for the night.

Tonga enjoyed the best of the territory in the opening quarter and they went back in front with a fine try after 17 minutes.

Taione handed off former Newcastle team-mate Wilkinson and fed Hufanga, who beat three men before sliding over by the posts despite inside centre Olly Barkley's attempted tackle.

Hola converted but England hit back immediately with a dramatic score.

Tonga infringed as England drove at the heart of their defence from the re-start and it looked as though Wilkinson would take the shot at goal, but instead he kicked to the right wing.

The giant Joseph Vaka had left Sackey unattended and the Wasps flyer just managed to catch the ball and get it down before rolling over the dead ball line.

Wilkinson, who had spoken earlier in the week about his trouble timing his kicks with the official World Cup ball, caught his conversion attempt horribly and missed the posts by miles.

As the game moved deeper into the half England's upper hand in the set-piece began to pay dividends and Wilkinson knocked over a trademark drop-goal and a regulation penalty to put the defending champions 14-10 up.

Undaunted, Tonga went back on the attack, with the likes of Taione battering away at England's thin white line, but when Hola threw a poor pass it fell at the feet of Sackey.

He was on England's 22 but the Wasps winger has pace to burn and Hufanga gave up the chase with 30m still to go.

Wilkinson once again missed the conversion attempt to the left of the posts but England were 19-0 up and the quarter-finals were in sight.

The rain which began to hammer down during the half-time interval benefited England, who had a better kicking game and the advantage in the set-piece.

But they missed the chance to extend their lead when Wilkinson missed a kickable penalty - yet again to the left - after the battered and bloodied Lewis Moody fell victim to a high tackle by the otherwise excellent Tonga captain Latu.

The let-off boosted Tonga's morale and, after England brought on former Great Britain rugby league captain Farrell for Barkley with just under half an hour to play, they trimmed the gap with a second Hola penalty.

England looked a little rattled but within three minutes the scoreline had a very different air.

Cueto dummied his way through the Tonga defence and although he failed to find the supporting Farrell, when England switched play to the left Tait sliced over for the try.

While Wilkinson was adding the conversion to make it 26-13 England captain Phil Vickery sauntered on with the air of a gunslinger walking into "his" saloon before embracing Matt Stevens, the man who kept him out of the starting line-up.

Farrell looked fired up from his first touch and after 66 minutes he made the game safe, cutting back against the grain to score his first try for England after dummying a run-around with Wilkinson.

The Newcastle fly-half kicked the conversion and added a late drop-goal and although Pole went over for a last-gasp converted try, the champions ensured their defence of the Webb Ellis trophy will last for another week at least.

England: Lewsey; Sackey, Tait, Barkley, Cueto; Wilkinson, Gomarsall; Sheridan, Chuter, Stevens, Borthwick, Kay, Corry (capt), Moody, Easter

Replacements: Mears, Vickery, Dallaglio, Worsley, Richards, Farrell, Hipkiss.

Tonga: Lilo; Tu'ifua, Hufanga, Taione, Vaka; Hola, Tu'ipulotu; Tonga'uiha, Lutui, Pulu, Vaki, Fa'aoso, Pole, Latu (capt), Maka

Replacements: Taukafa, Taufa'ao Filise, Molitika, Afeaki, Havea, Huson Tonga'uiha, Havili.

Rugby World Cup

Hosts France got their stuttering World Cup campaign back on track by recording the largest win in their history.

They scored 13 tries against a Namibia side reduced to 14 men after 20 minutes when Jacques Nieuwenhuis was sent off for a high tackle on Sebastien Chabal.
Cedric Heymans, David Marty, Thierry Dussatoir, Lionel Nallet (2) and Vincent Clerc crossed before the break.
And Julien Bonnaire, Chabal (2), Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Clerc (2) and Raphael Ibanez added further tries.
France are engaged in a three-way fight with Argentina and Ireland for the two quarter-final places in Pool D and they had no margin for error after their 17-12 defeat by the Pumas which opened the tournament.
Ireland's subsequent struggles to beat both Georgia and Namibia will have given a boost to the hosts' shattered confidence.
And with Ireland failing to secure a bonus point in either match the bonus point France earned by scoring four tries on Sunday could prove vital.
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DEBATE
Toulouse is the biggest city in the French rugby heartland in the south west of the country and Les Bleus played with real joie de vivre in front of their passionate fans.
Heymans had been horribly exposed at full-back as Argentina rained high kicks down on him in the first night disaster in Paris, but he was back on the wing on Sunday and grabbed the first try after seven minutes.
The Toulouse crowd greeted the score rapturously and although Namiabia fly-half Emile Wessels soon trimmed the gap as he popped over a sweetly-struck drop-goal, there remained plenty to keep the home faithful happy.
Marty scored the second try after a sublime piece of deception from former Toulouse fly-half Frederic Michalak, who is heading to South African side the Sharks, sparked a long-range attack.
Elissalde, who failed with his first conversion attempt, made no mistake with the extras and France led 12-3.
Any distant hopes Namibia had of upsetting the hosts soon suffered a hammer blow as number eight Nieuwenhuis, who had already been spoken to by the referee for a high tackle, was sent off after laying out Chabal.

Namibia fought hard but were outgunned as France came to life
Dussatoir was driven over after France kicked the penalty to the corner and they added three more tries before the break.
Clerc skated over in between a brace from giant Castres second row Nallet, and four Elissalde conversions meant the hosts led 40-3 at half-time with the bonus point already safely tucked away.
Soon after the re-start the France pack drove the seven-man Namibia pack back over their own line to hand a push-over try to Bonnaire before Chabal, who has become a French folk hero in recent months, exploded into life.
First he pouched Elissalde's cute kick from a penalty to open his account before bursting clear from the halfway line and brushing off three men to score the most popular try of the night.
The fiesta continued until just before the final whistle with Elissalde, Clerc, who grabbed a quick-fire brace, and Ibanez all crossing.
The final word went to Namibia as centre Bradley Langenhoven grabbed an interception try, which was converted by Tertius Losper, in the last minute.
But, with Elissalde including 11 conversions in his personal haul of 27 points, France recorded their record win and they will go into Friday's crunch match against Ireland in a far more positive frame of mind.

France coach Bernard Laporte:"We played very well. Unfortunately we had a few scars as a result of the Argentina game.
"Since that Friday, we thought the memory of that result might cause us problems. But we were committed and brave. We showed the spirit necessary to pick ourselves up.
"When bad things happen, we have to keep playing our best to revive our honour. We had to drive our World Cup forward in this match.
"If we hadn't done this, we could have found ourselves in trouble. We respect the Namibians. They didn't pose us too many problems though. The team as a whole played very well, especially in the last 20 minutes. We scored many tries. We played to our strengths."

Namibia coach Hakkies Husselman:"After 20 minutes, we were down to 14 men.
"No matter who the team, they would have finished up with a result like we did. The score could have been 120-0. It was very hard for us.
"However, the French still made quite a few errors, but they managed to score a lot of tries."