England finally pull away from dogged Georgia

England captain Lewis Moody called for a marked improvement despite his side running in six tries against Georgia at Otago Stadium on Sunday.

Shontayne Hape and Chris Ashton each crossed twice as England finished 41-10 winners but spirited resistance had kept Pool B rivals Georgia in the hunt at half-time.

"We have a lot to improve on but you can only win each game in front of you and that's what we've done today," Moody said.

Georgia were only 17-10 down at the interval, but second-half tries from the three-quarter trio of Delon Armitage, Manu Tuilagi and Ashton (two) gave England breathing space.
Armitage put England two scores ahead and as the match entered the final quarter,

Georgia’s stretched defence barely laid a hand on Tuilagi as he chose a perfect attacking line.

With Georgia flagging, Ashton then celebrated a try with his signature swallow dive, before completing the scoring right on full-time.

Bullocking run

The match had been less than four minutes old when Hape sprinted clear after a bullocking run by second row Simon Shaw.

When the centre scored his second try after 21 minutes, England appeared to be cruising but indiscretion at the breakdown - the former world champions conceded 10 penalties before the break - cost them.

"We made it hard for ourselves by giving away a lot of penalties and making mistakes at the breakdown, but we came away with six tries," Moody said.

Dylan Hartley was sin-binned for persistent infringement just before half-time and from the ensuing penalty Georgia elected to take the scrum.

Georgian number 8 Dimitri Basilaia crashed over and the conversion by fly half Merab Kvirikashvili brought his side back to 17-10.

The Georgians deserved their try, having gone close earlier when wing Irakli Machkhaneli was knocked into touch as he dived for the corner.

Fly half Toby Flood converted four of England’s six tries and added a penalty, but his opposite number Kvirikashvili had a wayward day, missing five of his seven kicks.