England’s World Cup is all but over after PNG mounted a stunning second half comeback in Wollongong.

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Going into the match, England not only needed to win to have a chance of making the semi finals but they needed to score by a big margin.

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They headed into the game with a points differential 68 points worse than Samoa.

England needed to rack up a score against PNG to put pressure on Samoa who could then be eliminated from the tournament with a loss to Tonga on Sunday.

But Samoan players will be relaxed now after England blew a golden chance on Friday night.

Things were going to plan early for the English when they ran in four tries in the opening quarter of the game to lead by 22 points.

At that point Roosters coach Trent Robinson was saying in commentary that England could win the World Cup.

“There’s five teams that can win this World Cup, but unfortunately we’ve only got four spots (semis),” Robinson said.

But after being up 22-0 after 20 minutes, things went sour and they could only go into halftime 24-0 up.

“England have left a couple of tries out there,” James Graham said.

“They’ve looked to force the issue. It’s a fine balance that they had to get right if they are to apply the pressure on Samoa come Sunday.

“They need to score 40 points in the second half otherwise they can book the flight home the next day.

“The first 20 minutes couldn’t have gone better for England but since then they’ve been shaky.”

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SECOND HALF SHOCKER

England were on track to rack up the 50-plus points they needed to keep their World Cup alive, but they went 20 minutes and only completed two sets.

To make matters worse, England second rower Junior Nsemba was put on report for a lifting tackle early in the second half.

England could only win 34-12 which looks like it won’t be enough to progress.

Ryan Papenhuyzen said the game fell apart, mentally as well as physically, for England.

“I know they need to win by a big margin but it looks like they’ve given up,” he said.

Graham felt England went out in the second half “thinking it was going to come easily”.

England finished the game with a pathetic completion rate of just 60 per cent.

The English can certainly book their plane tickets home because they will only make it through to the semis if Tonga beats Samoa by more than 46 points on Sunday.

“The wheels fell off, too many errors,” captain George Williams said.

“We’re feeling pretty rubbish. We’re relying on Tonga to do something pretty big.”

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KUMULS JUST WANTED IT MORE

PNG simply ran harder and tackled harder than England in the second period and ended England’s Cup hopes in a six-minute period shortly after halftime when Dudley Dotoi and Gairo Voro scored to stun the crowd.

Voro has been linked to Jarome Luia and the four-time premiership winner would have been proud of the try the young man put on England.

“It looks like we’re going home after one loss in the tournament,” Herbie Farnworth said.

“We lost paitence with the ball. Scoreboard pressure got us a bit.”

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