Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Tue 09 Sep 2007Tonga could spell last tango for EnglandEngland v Tonga:England's forwards left Nantes and retraced their steps to Versailles yesterday with alarm bells ringing in their cauliflower ears. What was supposed to be a largely irrelevant pool game against Tonga prior to the serious business of the knock-out stages is now a bare-knuckle fight for survival, and two familiar voices have warned that England may struggle unless they sharpen up on Friday night.The first of the day's blunt messages came from the forwards coach, John Wells, who sat in a rain-lashed marquee in La Baule and admitted that the "set-piece monsters" of English rugby had to reinvent themselves in a fast-changing world.