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England bow out with a win

The 10 tries to nil victory will be scant consolation for an England team that looked every a side that could not compete with the big guns of the tournament.

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While they were goof value for the win, it must be taken into consideration the quality of the opposition – who had a short four-day turnaround, after a match on Tuesday.

Add in the many errors they made against the plucky South Americans and it is obvious why the game in England is in disarray.

Veteran Nick Easter and World Cup debutant Jack Nowell both scored a hat-tricks.England bow out with a win

However, the team were far from forgiven for their disastrous tournament which saw them become the first hosts to fail to reach the knockout stages.

There were more than 4,000 empty seats for their final Pool A game at the Manchester City ground and major doubts remain about the future of coach Stuart Lancaster after their calamitous exit.

Lancaster gave no indication about whether he has made up his mind to resign or wait to be pushed by the Rugby Football Union.

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"It's not my mind is it? There are a lot of other people who have got a say in it, I'm sure. It has been a tough week. I just wanted to get through the week and put in a good performance. We have done that so we will see what next week holds," Lancaster said after the game.

Those who went to the match saw 10 tries and a chance for some of England's new generation to stake a claim for places.

The 37-year-old Easter got his three tries as a result of England's total domination of the set pieces.

But Nowell's classy runs and a try also on his  debut for his Exeter teammate Henry Slade will have given hope for the long-term future.

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The game started ominously for the English, conceding a penalty after just 90 seconds for offside which Felipe Berchesi slotted over.

But Nowell got the ball from a line-out in the seventh minute and kicked forward for Anthony Watson to gather and touch down before a chasing pack of Uruguayan players.

Watson could have been offside but referee Chris Pollock awarded England's 1,500th Test match try.

England won another line-out and the pack drove to the line where Easter forced his way over. His second try came five minutes later in similar circumstances and England started to motor ahead.

Watson got an easy try just after the break and Slade charged down a Uruguayan kick and rushed in to get his name on the sheet.

Nowell got his first from a smart Danny Care pass which put him free on the right wing. Care also pushed the England pack forward for Easter's third try.

Nowell then got two tries in two minutes – the 10th score was a penalty try.

"Uruguay took a bit of breaking down but I thought we got there in the second half and scored some good tries," said Lancaster.

"Overall I thought we put some good shapes together and our attack was creative, there were some good skills out there and there were some good tries.

"It has been a tough week for the players. They feel terrible for not qualifying. But I thought the crowd were brilliant from the minute they got off the bus to the end of the game," the coach declared.

"We knew we had to finish off on a high," said Care.

"Obviously people are very disappointed that we didn't get through to the quarter-finals – no more so than the players in that dressing room.

"But all we could was go out there and throw the ball around and try and enjoy it. I thought we did that."

Man of the match: Outclassed, outplayed and outweighed – the Uruguayans tackled their hearts out, none more so than centre Andres Vilaseca and flank Matias Beer. Te English players are obviously in a different league, but not many of them played like they were tier one players against tier three opposition. We are going for veteran Nick Easter, because of his hat-trick of tries – he is almost double the age of Jack Nowell, the other member of England's hat-trick club.

Moment of the match: It goes to the final whistle – which brought an end to a very boring England team's World Cup campaign.

Villain of the match: The Manchester crowd, who kept singing that song about the broken chariot as if they were winning the World Cup.

The scorers:

For England:

Tries: Watson 2, Easter 3, Slade, Nowell 3, penalty try

Cons: Farrell 4, Ford

For Uruguay:

Pens:  Berchesi

Yellow card: Santiago Vilaseca (Uruguay, 40 – repeated infringements, killing the ball at the ruck/tackle)

Teams:

England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Anthony Watson, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Owen Farrell, 11 Jack Nowell, 10 George Ford, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Chris Robshaw (captain), 6 James Haskell, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Mako Vunipola.

Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Joe Marler, 18 David Wilson, 19 George Kruis, 20 Tom Wood, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Jonathan Joseph, 23 Mike Brown.

Uruguay: 15 Gaston Mieres, 14 Santiago Gibernau, 13 Joaquin Prada, 12 Andres Vilaseca, 11 Rodrigo Silva, 10 Felipe Berchesi, 9 Agustin Ormaechea, 8 Alejandro Nieto, 7 Matias Beer, 6 Juan Manuel Gaminara, 5 Jorge Zerbino, 4 Santiago Vilaseca (captain), 3 Mario Sagario, 2 Carlos Arboleya, 1 Mateo Sanguinetti.

Replacements: 16 Nicolas Klappenbach, 17 Oscar Duran, 18 Alejo Corral, 19 Mathias Palomeque, 20 Diego Magno, 21 Agustin Alonso, 22 Alejo Duran, 23 Manuel Blengio.

Referee: Chris Pollock (New Zealand)

Assistant referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), Federico Anselmi (Argentina)

TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)

@rugby365com & AFP

England bow out with a win

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