'Enormous' win over France keeps England alive in Cup

World No.3 England entered Saturday's match knowing they needed a win in the vicinity of 80-plus points to give their points differential enough of a boost to stay in the hunt for a last-four berth.

For England to progress, they must beat Papua New Guinea in their final group game in Wollongong on Friday and also rely on Tonga beating Samoa in Sydney two days later.

If those two events occur, it will come down to points differential between England and Samoa to progress to the final four.

Samoa beat France 78-4 last week before following it up with a 64-6 win over PNG, giving them a plus-132 points differential.

England, who lost to Tonga 30-12 in their opener, now have a plus-64 points differential.

Samoa are still in the box seat to progress even if they lose to Tonga, but England are at least a chance, although they will have to run riot against world No.6 PNG.

"What we've done today is enormous; given the context, I think it's just enormous," England coach Brian McDermott said.

"Knowing that we had to win big, we all had some candid conversations this week about what that actually means and what it would look like.

"Whatever the results are next week, we want to finish strong against PNG.

"If we go home next Sunday then that'll be a big disappointment, but I don't know what else we could've done."

Things were looking bleak for England when they were held scoreless for the first 22 minutes by a determined French defence.

But Young's opener at HBF Park sparked six tries in the space of 18 minutes - including three to Farnworth - as England went into halftime with a 36-0 lead.

Young continued to wreak havoc after the break, with his big body and long strides putting the French defence under all sorts of pressure. 

England made the most of France's tiring defence to extend their margin beyond 80 points, but they still face an uphill battle to make the semi-finals.