England ease past Samoa

England ended their five-match losing streak with an unconvincing 28-9 win against Samoa at Twickenham on Saturday.

The hosts led 13-6 at the break thanks to a converted try from Jonny May, who left the Samoan defence for dead after taking Mike Brown's offload, and two penalties from George Ford.

Ford slotted another penalty early in the second half, before kicking out of hand to Anthony Watson, who gave the try-scoring pass to Brown.

Pisi kicked his third penalty, but Samoa were then reduced to 14 men when Johnny Leota was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle on Ford. A minute later, England went wide from a maul to May, who went over for his second try.

But Samoa did well to keep England scoreless for the remaining 17 minutes of the match, and came close to scoring themselves on a couple of occasions.

England – Tries: Jonny May (2), Mike Brown. Conversions: George Ford (2). Penalties: Ford (3).
Samoa – Penalties: Tusi Pisi (3).

England – 15 Mike Brown, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Brad Barritt, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 Jonny May, 10 George Ford, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 James Haskell, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Dave Attwood, 3 David Wilson, 2 Rob Webber, 1 Joe Marler.
Subs: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Matt Mullan, 18 Kieran Brookes, 19 George Kruis, 20 Tom Wood, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Billy Twelvetrees, 23 Marland Yarde.

Samoa – 15 Ken Pisi, 14 Alapati Leiua, 13 Rey Lee-Lo, 12 Johnny Leota, 11 David Lemi, 10 Tusi Pisi, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 Ofisa Treviranus, 7 Jack Lam, 6 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 5 Kane Thompson, 4 Filo Paulo, 3 Census Johnston, 2 Ti'i Paulo, 1 Zak Taulafo.
Subs: 16 Manu Leiataua, 17 Viliamu Afatia, 18 Anthony Perenise, 19 Fa'atiga Lemalu, 20 Dan Leo, 21 TJ Ioane, 22 Pete Cowley, 23 Mike Stanley.

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