Moody has praise for Scotland

England captain Lewis Moody heaped praise on Scotland after Martin Johnson’s side secured a dramatic 16-12 victory in today’s World Cup Pool B clash in Auckland.

Chris Ashton’s late try edged England in front for the first time in the match in the 78th minute to seal a late triumph at Eden Park which secured a quarter-final clash with France.

Moody told ITV1: “Full credit to Scotland. It was an incredibly tough day. They played a tremendous game. We knew they would and we didn’t make it easy for ourselves by any stretch of the imagination with the penalty count.

“But we can only win the games in front of us and we’ve done that today.

“We’ve come out on the right side of the result but it was a tough game.”

He added: “We knew Scotland would come out with all their fire and they did and in the second half we counteracted that.

“The front-row boys did a fantastic job at the scrums. We started getting on top of them in the second half, we got more of a platform and Ashy got over in the corner as he always does.

“It’s another win – that’s all we’re here for and that’s all that matters.”

But, while England scraped through, Scotland were left contemplating elimination in the group stage of the World Cup for the first time ever.

Scotland need Georgia to beat Argentina in Palmerston North tomorrow – and deny the Pumas any bonus points – if they are to snatch a place in the last eight, but coach Andy Robinson was proud of his troops.

He told ITV1: “I’ve got to give every credit to the side. They’ve given everything.

“We’re hugely disappointed to lose the game, as we were last week [13-12 defeat to Argentina].

“There’s a great spirit among the boys. The way they have carried themselves throughout the World Cup, the friends they’ve made – I think they’ve been an outstanding group of people and I’ve been delighted to be their head coach.

“We’re going to be supporting Georgia tomorrow. We hope they can do a job for us. I think the big thing is that sport is won and lost by inches. In both cases where it’s come to winning games, we’ve lost out.

“But you can’t fault England. They’ve held it together under pressure and seen themselves through.”