Tom Curry has been pushing himself through a punishing training regime to ensure he is ready to face Samoa in England’s final World Cup group match.
Curry has played less than three minutes of the tournament in France after being sent off in the opener for a dangerous tackle against Argentina, resulting in a two-match suspension.
It continued his challenging start to the Steve Borthwick era, having missed the entire Six Nations and build-up campaign to the World Cup because of injury.
Now poised to make his comeback against Samoa on October 7, the squad’s most influential player in defence has been defying the instructions of England’s fitness guru Aled Walters to perfect his conditioning.
“Tom is a unique player in that I don’t think I’ve ever come across anyone so fit, or so willing to work hard and put himself through pain,” scrum coach Tom Harrison said.
“He just seems to be able to enjoy it and keep going. There was a conditioning session the other day where he finished his reps and Aled Walters was shouting at him, ‘Get out, get out’. And he just carried on running.
“He just stayed in and carried on running. And when he did finally decide it was time for time for him to get out, he left the drill and Ellis Genge started hammering him for leaving the drill! And you just saw him getting so angry about it!
“He is in phenomenal shape. He has been brilliant. Unfortunately he was suspended, but he was brilliant by not going, ‘Oh I’m suspended for these two games’. Instead he went, ‘How can I help England win?’.
“And the work he was doing to help make training hard and difficult for the guys playing, and also the work he was doing with the back rows, to add his experience and his knowledge to our team meetings has been exceptional.”
Lasse Sorensen has been studying fairytales after going back to school – now he is ready to write his own against West Ham.
Online lessons, assignments and a six-hour exam has made the Lincoln midfielder an expert.
The works of Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen, which include the Emperor’s New Clothes, the Ugly Duckling and the Princess and the Pea, have been the focus.
Enrolling in the Voksenuddannelsescentre, adult education courses, Sorensen completed his Danish literature class in the summer, all part of the 23-year-old’s plan to earn the qualifications he missed growing up.
It is apt, playing for a club known for its recent romantic cup stories, as Lincoln target another against the Hammers in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.
“The school takes it right back to analyse fairytales, novels and old scripts from 300 years ago,” Sorensen tells the PA news agency, ahead of the third-round tie at Sincil Bank.
“So all the very boring stuff that I don’t think anybody really finds interesting, I certainly didn’t! I’ve done every fairytale Hans Christian Andersen has written.
“In Denmark you need subjects like Danish, maths, history and physics before you can do anything in later life. So I took Danish, the equivalent to A-Levels in England, so if I want to go to Uni one day, I can.
“When you play senior football a lot of it is games, games, games. There’s so much football.
“So, sometimes the best thing to do is leave and get your head off it. I was thinking ‘what can I do which can be beneficial?’ I’m a thinker so if something happens I’ll sit and think about it a lot, good or bad.
“I’ll sit and think if I don’t have anything else do to, so why not go back to education?
https://x.com/itvfootball/status/1649865138101420032?s=20
“It can never be bad and the main thing was just to get my brain off football sometimes. Otherwise, on your CV, you’ve got a little bit to say you’ve played football for a few years and done nothing else.”
Leaving his home town, Vejen, and first team Esbjerg to join Stoke in 2016 Sorensen’s education took a back seat.
At just 15 he moved to England without any qualifications and, while there were English lessons at the Potters, football was the focus.
“Because I was Danish, I was just studying the language. I came to the club and then had to quickly learn as much as I could,” says the midfielder, who made eight appearances for Stoke before joining Lincoln in 2021.
“So on the Wednesday, which was normally when the English lads used to do the education, I spent my time learning English.
“The hardest bit of going back to school was just starting and getting your head around it.
“As much as I’ve enjoyed getting my mind off other things, it’s never the most exciting thing to sit down and do.
“But that was the good thing as well because you’ll say to yourself ‘you need to get it done otherwise you won’t get it.’
“It was disciplined, the hardest and the best thing was I had to be disciplined about it.”
His online studies culminated in the exam back in Vejen this summer with Sorensen’s graft paying off as he scored 10 – the equivalent to an A.
“I had to sit with 100 people in a big school hall with my laptop for six hours, you couldn’t speak either of course. It was a bit different to what I’ve done for the last eight years,” says the Denmark Under-20 international, who is also planning to start a financial advisor course.
He is now in a break from his studies as he prepares to start a maths course in a few months. Football remains the priority and the immediate one is another Premier League scalp.
Last season Lincoln reached the Carabao Cup last 16, where they lost to Southampton, as they added to the club’s cup pedigree after their impressive run to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2017 while still in the National League.
A shoot-out win at Sheffield United last month earned the Imps a crack at the Europa Conference League holders and Sorensen knows Mark Kennedy’s side can write another chapter.
He said: “It’s always 11 v 11. Some might be the favourites and some the underdogs but if you want it more than the others, you are the ones who win it.
“They’re a really, really good team, they are quality players, but it’s not actually won yet.
“It’s been shown before, we beat Sheffield United in the last round so we’ve got a growing belief we could do it again.
“You’ve always got to believe in yourself to do the thing most people think you can’t.”
Duncan Ferguson has been appointed as Inverness manager.
The former Dundee United, Rangers, Newcastle and Everton striker has signed a three-year contract.
The job is Ferguson’s second in management after a brief spell at Forest Green last season. Rovers only won one of the 18 games the former Scotland forward took charge of and were relegated from Sky Bet League One.
The ex-Everton coach succeeds Billy Dodds, who lost his job months after leading Caley Thistle to the Scottish Cup final. Inverness are bottom of the cinch Championship with one point from five games.
Inverness said the appointment came after an “extensive recruitment process which involved some truly excellent candidates”.
A club statement added: “Duncan has worked alongside some of the most respected and outstanding football coaches in the world in recent seasons and we are proud to have him join ICTFC as our new manager.
“His professionalism, commitment and dynamic leadership skills shone through in our discussions, making him the standout candidate.
“Everyone at the club is looking forward to supporting Duncan as the hard work starts now and we hope every Caley Jag will now get right behind him and the team in what we are sure will be a thrilling journey.”
Hopes of seeing a royal runner in this year’s Melbourne Cup are over after connections of Desert Hero confirmed he will not be making the trip to Australia.
The Sea The Stars colt brought the house down when providing the newly-crowned King and Queen with their first taste of Royal Ascot success in the King George V Stakes in June, while a subsequent victory in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood earned him a shot at Classic glory in the St Leger.
The King and Queen made the trip to Doncaster to see the William Haggas-trained three-year-old in action and while he came up short, he was far from disgraced in finishing third behind Aidan O’Brien’s Continuous and Haggas left the door ajar for a possible tilt at ‘the race that stops a nation’ on the first Tuesday in November.
However, while Desert Hero was put through and passed the veterinary checks that would allow him to board the plane, his team have ultimately decided a journey to Australia is not in the youngster’s best interest at this stage of his career.
John Warren, racing adviser to the King and Queen, told the PA news agency: “After giving it plenty of thought we have decided that Desert Hero won’t head to the Melbourne Cup this year.
“It is obviously a world-class race and it was very tempting, but he is still a young horse and we will give him more time to mature.
“He will now have a good break and William will work out a plan for next year.”
Ireland fly-half Jack Crowley joked about spending his well-earned days off in Disneyland following the fairytale of sealing his country’s statement Rugby World Cup win against South Africa.
Test rookie Crowley capped a thrilling 13-8 victory over the reigning champions by calmly slotting a crucial late penalty after stepping off the bench to replace captain Johnny Sexton at Stade de France.
The 23-year-old was visiting Paris for the first time and had the chance to remain in the French capital for a brief escape from reality ahead of a turning his attention to a pivotal Pool B finale against Scotland on October 7.
Crowley, who expects the Scots to be “gunning” for Ireland, could not resist a light-hearted quip at the expense of his diminutive team-mate Craig Casey and some of the senior members of Andy Farrell’s squad, including 38-year-old Sexton, as he humorously imagined a group theme park visit.
“We have a few days off to recover because it has been a few intense weeks,” he said.
“(I’m going to) take it easy. Disneyland Paris! We have to get a pass for Craig though. There’s a few old-age pensioners as well. Yeah, maybe Disneyland, we’ll see.
“We go back in on Wednesday and the preparation begins for Scotland.
“I suppose they are going to grow throughout the competition, aren’t they?
“We have come against them in the Six Nations and they have been one the toughest competitors because of the way they play.
“Our eyes are firmly on them. I’m sure they will be gunning for us.”
Ireland led South Africa by just two points for the majority of a tense final quarter of Saturday’s epic encounter.
In front of massive Irish support, Crowley nailed a nerveless 77th-minute kick on the occasion of his eighth cap to alleviate mounting pressure before a heroic defensive effort secured success.
The Munster player revealed team-mate James Lowe was audibly counting down the seconds on the shot clock ahead of the conversion to eat into the time the Springboks would have to hit back.
He described the physicality of a bruising contest as “through the walls”, while playing down his “nice easy penalty” on an evening when the opposition’s wayward goal-kicking proved costly.
Speaking of his key contribution, which came four seconds inside the permitted time, Crowley said: “(It was) pretty special.
“When you’re sitting on the bench looking up at the clock as the time is dwindling away, you see the magnitude grow larger.
“It was a proper Test match. The physicality was through the walls.
“When you’re coming on you’ve got to know the magnitude of the game and the responsibility.
“I got a nice easy penalty in front of the posts. If I’d missed that I think you’d be saying a different story to me. But that’s the gig.”
While Ireland have a weekend off, South Africa face Tonga on Sunday with work to do.
Crowley suggested the world’s top two teams could meet again in the final at the end of next month.
“They’re a World Cup-winning side because they disrupt team’s plans,” he said.
“They play rugby the way they want to play and that’s how they won a World Cup just by doing that.
“We knew since we played them in November last year (a 19-16 win for Ireland) just what a challenge this was going to be.
“You’ve got to trust your plan and as a coaching staff and players we all bought into it and thankfully in the end we got the result but it’s not easy.
“And I’m sure we won’t see the last of them in the competition.”
Adolis Garcia, Mitch Garver and Nathaniel Lowe hit consecutive solo home runs in the sixth inning to rally the Texas Rangers to a 5-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Monday that extended the American League West leaders' winning streak to six games.
Marcus Semien added a solo homer in the seventh inning to help back six sharp innings from Jon Gray as Texas reduced its magic number to win the division to four. The Rangers maintained a 2 1/2-game lead over second-place Houston with less than a week remaining in the regular season.
Garcia, Garver and Lowe's back-to-back-to-back homers off Jimmy Herget erased a 1-0 deficit, and Semien belted his third homer in two games an inning later to increase the lead to 4-1.
Texas had a season-high six homers in Sunday's 9-8 win over AL West rival Seattle and now has 227 for the season, surpassing the Angels' 225 for the most in the AL.
Gray ended a seven-start winless drought by holding the Angels to one run on five hits while recording seven strikeouts. The right-hander had gone 0-3 with a 6.46 ERA during that stretch.
Logan O'Hoppe finished 2 for 4 and accounted for Los Angeles' lone run with a solo homer in the second inning.
Angels starter Patrick Sandoval threw three scoreless innings before exiting with tightness in his right oblique. The left-hander walked the first two hitters of the fourth prior to departing.
Verlander dominates Mariners as Astros increase gap in AL wild card race
Justin Verlander took a shutout into the ninth inning in his best start since rejoining the Houston Astros, who increased their lead on the Seattle Mariners for the AL's third wild card with Monday's 5-1 win.
Verlander yielded just two hits and struck out eight until permitting a leadoff double to Josh Rojas to begin the bottom of the ninth. The three-time AL Cy Young Award winner was then removed after 96 pitches.
Rojas ended up scoring Seattle's lone run on a sacrifice fly from Julio Rodriguez.
Verlander helped the Astros to two World Series titles over four-plus seasons before signing with the New York Mets in December. The 40-year-old was traded back to Houston on Aug. 1.
Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker had solo home runs to help Houston win the opener of this important three-game series. The Astros are now 1 1/2 games up on the Mariners for the final wild card and trail the first-place Texas Rangers by 2 1/2 games in the AL West.
Martin Maldonado went 2 for 3 and delivered an RBI double during a three-run second inning that staked Verlander to an early lead. Mauricio Dubon and Jose Altuve added RBI singles during the frame.
Luis Castillo struck out eight over six innings for Seattle, which has now lost four in a row, but allowed all five Houston runs.
Diamondbacks fall to Yankees, drop into tie for NL's second wild card
Oswald Peraza, Estevan Florial and Everson Pereira had eighth-inning RBIs as the New York Yankees rallied for a 6-4 win over Arizona that dropped the Diamondbacks into a tie for the NL’s second wild card spot.
The loss sent the Diamondbacks into a tie with the idle Chicago Cubs in the wild card standings with both teams one game ahead of the Miami Marlins.
The Yankees, who overcame deficits three times in the game, trailed 4-3 entering their half of the eighth but tagged Kevin Ginkel for three runs to take the lead for good. Clay Holmes then pitched a perfect ninth for his 22nd save of the season.
Youngsters Peraza and Austin Wells homered to help the Yankees earn two wins in the three-game series.
Arizona’s Merrill Kelly needed 96 pitches to navigate five innings, but allowed just two runs while striking out five and leaving with the game tied.
Alek Thomas knocked in two runs for the Diamondbacks, while Corbin Carroll finished 3 for 5 with an RBI.
What the papers say
Jadon Sancho has been urged by players at Manchester United to end his dispute with manager Erik ten Hag, according to the Daily Mirror. The Times reports that the PFA has offered to help the England winger, 23, settle his differences with ten Hag.
Arsenal are gearing up to grab Ivan Toney, with the Daily Mirror reporting Brentford have valued the 27-year-old at £60 million ahead of a likely move for him in the January transfer window.
Jesse Lingard has ended his one-month training stint at West Ham to move to Saudi Arabia, with the Daily Mirror reporting club manager David Moyes insisting the club is comfortable with Lingard’s decision.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Chelsea secretly parted ways with Bruno, who joined Craven Cottage under former manager Graham Potter’s watch and was a first-team coach under Mauricio Pochettino.
Social media round-upPlayers to watch
Romelu Lukaku: Roma are keen to turn the 30-year-old striker’s loan from Chelsea into a permanent move.
Mohamed Salah: Negotiations between Liverpool, Saudi Arabia and the striker’s agent are becoming the subject of a Harvard study.
Lewis Hamilton hailed his 100th victory as a “magical moment” following a dramatic Russian Grand Prix, on this day in 2021.
Lando Norris, 21, looked set to knock Hamilton off his perch as the youngest Briton to win a Formula One race after a composed and mature drive at Sochi’s Olympic Park.
But the McLaren star was cruelly denied his first triumph when the arrival of rain with just seven laps remaining turned the race on its head.
Norris stayed out on slick rubber but the gamble backfired. Hamilton stopped for wet tyres and crossed the line 53 seconds clear of rival Max Verstappen to bring up his landmark win, 14 years and 108 days after his first triumph in Montreal, Canada in just his sixth race.
“It has taken a long time to get to 100 and I wasn’t even sure if it would come,” said Hamilton, then 36.
“It is a magical moment. I could only have dreamed of still being here, to have this opportunity to win these races, and to drive with such phenomenal talents this late on in my career.
“I am so proud of everything we have done with Mercedes, on and off the track, and this is a special moment for everyone that has been part of it.”
Hamilton’s landmark victory took him nine clear of Michael Schumacher in the all-time standings and gave him the advantage over Max Verstappen in the title race.
But the Dutchman ultimately pipped Hamilton in a controversial season finale after the British driver extended his win record to 103, with his last success coming in Saudi Arabia.
The Philadelphia Eagles maintained their perfect start to the season, proving too strong for previously unbeaten Tampa Bay.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts led his team to a 25-11 win as he masterminded a game-deciding drive that lasted nine minutes.
Hurts threw for 277 yards and scored a touchdown while running back D’Andre Swift racked up 130 yards on 16 carries.
The Eagles are 3-0 for the second successive season and join Miami and San Francisco as the only unbeaten sides.
Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow shook off a calf injury to throwing for 259 yards to beat the Los Angeles Rams 19-16 for the Bengals’ first win of the season.
Burrow, who picked up the injury in pre-season and aggravated it against Baltimore last week, only returned to training on Thursday.
Running back Joe Mixon’s 14-yard touchdown run in the third quarter gave the AFC North champions their first lead of the season.
Logan Wilson intercepted Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford twice and he was sacked six times.
Kyle Sinckler admits his relief at winning a race against time to be fit for England’s World Cup having succeeded in convincing Steve Borthwick that his body would not let him down.
Sinckler tore the pectoral muscle in his chest during the build-up to the final warm-up Test against Fiji in August, plunging his participation in France 2023 into doubt.
It resulted in veteran Dan Cole rolling back the years to start the opener against Argentina at tighthead prop and, eight days later, Sinckler’s promise to his head coach was honoured when he was given the all clear to face Japan.
“For me there’s a massive amount of appreciation and gratitude to be back out there because it was kind of touch and go,” the 30-year-old Bristol front row said.
“The scan came back and it didn’t look great but I knew it would be fine. Fair play to the medical staff and Steve for trusting me and to say: ‘I know my body, I am going to be fine’.
“And thank you to my team who work for me off the field. They have really stepped up and helped me and I have been on recovery 24/7 since that game so I am just very grateful to be here and hopefully get to do my thing again.
“I was keen to play against Japan and then to get the start against Chile, that was pretty cool.
“I’m just grateful to be here – my second World Cup and my 13th or 12th year playing professional rugby.”
England’s reliance on Will Stuart early in August’s warm-up fixtures suggested that Sinckler was no longer undisputed first choice for the number three jersey – a position he has held since 2018.
His torn pec exacerbated the situation but, two games into his return, he is expected to start the final Pool D match against Samoa in Lille on October 7. And he will do so knowing the demands on the modern prop are greater than ever.
“The only thing that is not expected from me is to kick and take high balls! The role has changed since I first came on the scene,” Sinckler said.
“The way I played tighthead prop, a lot of people said: ‘You can’t do it that way,’ because of my ball-carrying, tips, chasing. I had to really work hard on my scrummaging because that didn’t come naturally.
“Now it’s: ‘We want you to make 10 carries, we want you to make 10 tackles, we want you to get two or three scrum penalties, we want you to be strong in the kick chase, we want you to hit the rucks’. The standard is high and that is what I expect of myself.”
Stuart McInally declared it “a privilege” to have been able to end his rugby career at the Rugby World Cup with Scotland as he confirmed he has now retired from the game.
The 33-year-old hooker has endured a roller-coaster of emotions since he first announced in April his plan to retire after the global showpiece to pursue a new career as an airline pilot.
McInally, who captained Scotland at the last World Cup, looked on course for a fairytale career swansong in France this autumn when he was named in the provisional 41-man training squad in May but he suffered the anguish of being cut from the group when Gregor Townsend named his final 33 in August.
View this post on InstagramMcInally then got called out to France as cover for the concussed Ewan Ashman in the first week of September but he returned home when his fellow hooker recovered.
There was another twist in the tale when Dave Cherry fell on the stairs at the team hotel and suffered a tournament-ending concussion a fortnight ago, just after McInally had flown back to Scotland, so the long-serving Edinburgh forward was summoned back out to officially join the squad.
Agonisingly, however, just over a week after being added to the fray – and without playing a match at the tournament – he suffered a neck injury in training on Wednesday and it was revealed on Sunday night that he had been forced to withdraw from the squad and would not be able to win his elusive 50th cap.
McInally, who won the first of his 49 caps in 2015, posted a message on Instagram on Monday evening confirming that his “rugby story is over”.
“When I was at school I had a dream: to play rugby for Scotland,” he wrote. “That dream came true and I’ve had the time of my life.
“As Luke Patience (the British Olympic sailor) once said to me ‘it’s the arena that holds all of your hopes and dreams, but also your worst fears and nightmares’. And he wasn’t joking.
“Like all sportspeople, my story contains a mixture of highs and lows. On reflection, the good times have, overwhelmingly, outweighed the struggles and I wouldn’t change my journey. It has shaped who I am today.
“Thank you to everyone who has contributed to my career. There are far too many to name and I am forever grateful.
“And lastly thank you to the supporters. Without you, my dream of captaining and Scotland singing the national anthem at a sold-out Scottish Gas Murrayfield doesn’t happen.
“It was a privilege to end my career being being part of the 2023 Scotland Rugby World Cup squad and, for now, my rugby story is over.
“It’s time to start the next one.”
McInally’s message concluded with the emojis of an aeroplane and a pilot.
The reigning American Boxing Confederation Caribbean Champion, Jamaica's Sherikee Moore, will highlight the first female bout set to take place at the next staging of the exciting Wray & Nephew Fight Nights Series set for the Ebony Vale Community Centre in St Catherine on Saturday, October 7, 2023.
Seven other enthralling bouts are slated to take place on the night, but all eyes will be on the first female fight of the series which has been a boost for the sport of boxing on the island. Six professional boxers and 10 amateur boxers will take their enthusiasm and determination to the ring to secure needed wins to advance their careers. This fight features at least three boxers from the neighbouring GC Foster Boxing Gym.
Stephen Jones, President of the Jamaica Boxing Board, has high praises for the series which is sanctioned by his organization.
“From a boxing board perspective, we knew that the Wray & Nephew Fight Night series would create a platform capable of elevating the sport to levels never before seen in the Caribbean. What we didn’t realize is how quickly the impact would be felt since its inception. Female boxing has been the fastest-growing discipline in sport since it was first introduced to the Olympics in 2016, so it’s imperative that we place just as much emphasis on the opportunities provided for our females as we do our males, so having a female bout on the upcoming card will not only entertain but will certainly inspire other females to come on board to make a name for themselves and ultimately their country,” Jones shared.
A 21-year-old student of GC Foster College, Moore is set to compete against Shanika Gordon from the Jamaica Defense Force, and by all indications, the fight is expected to bring tremendous excitement as the both women will get a chance to showcase their talent while trading punches in front of what is expected to be a jam-packed venue.
Moore has been boxing for nine years and was introduced to the sport at a summer boxing camp at the Olympic Gardens Community Centre.
The first-year Massage student has since garnered a record of five wins and two losses in her seven bouts to date, and the featherweight novice is grateful that the Wray & Nephew boxing series is giving her the platform to showcase her talent.
“I think this is a great opportunity not only for us female boxers as we get a chance to show that there are not only male boxers but there are female boxers who are thriving in the sport,” said Moore.
According to Moore, who will be in her second fight since late last year, the opportunity provided by the Jamaica Boxing Board and title sponsors Wray and Nephew who embodies the statement ‘FI WI culture’ has truly been a masterstroke.
“Internationally, there are just three of us that box and I feel that more females should be getting into the sport. This kind of initiative spearheaded by Wray and Nephew cannot come at a better time because as females it is hard to get fights in Jamaica.”
Pavel Smith, Marketing Manager Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum is proud the series will host its first female bout. “The sport of boxing, like Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum a “Fi wi Culture”. The Fight Night series was developed to elevate Jamaican boxing talent and skill. We heartily welcome this first female exhibition as the series expands into parishes across the island.”
Moore, who trains at the Suga Knock Out Gym in Olympic Gardens, says she has benefitted tremendously from getting into the sport on a personal level.
“Since I have been boxing, I have grown more confident and I have started to communicate with others better. I was a shy person, but the sport of boxing has helped me to be more confident and I have gotten better,” Moore noted.
She says she will be ramping up her training in the coming week in preparation for the bout and she hopes to one day take her skills to the highest level.
“I see myself becoming a professional in a few years and one of my other goals is to represent Jamaica at the Olympics. For that to happen, I will need more experience and exposure and I must say a big thank you to Wray and Nephew for giving us the avenue on our journey and ultimate goal,” Moore shared.
Sports stars and clubs across the world continue to provide an insight into their lives on social media.
Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the best examples from September 25.
FootballFormer Bolton winger Ricardo Gardner spent his birthday posing in a tunnel with Usain Bolt.
View this post on InstagramJoao Cancelo is loving life in Barcelona.
GolfIt’s Ryder Cup week.
View this post on InstagramEurope celebrated retaining the Solheim Cup.
View this post on InstagramChris Froome has some fun.
Gareth Anscombe admits there is an element of relief after Wales avoided a fight to the finish in their quest for a Rugby World Cup quarter-final place.
Wales’ record-breaking 40-6 victory over Australia meant they got the job done early in Pool C.
They preserved their 100 per cent record with one game still remaining – against Georgia next week – leaving other teams, led by Fiji, to fret over reaching the knockout phase.
Had Wales lost, it would have been a different story and meant them being caught up in a nervous scramble for two available places.
“It is probably relief. I don’t like that saying that, but we knew there was a lot on it,” Wales fly-half Anscombe said.
“We knew if we didn’t win we would go into the last week not quite having control. It is really rewarding because we do so much hard work.
“We’ve got a tricky little number in Georgia to finish off, and we definitely won’t overlook them, but it is nice to be in control of the group.”
Anscombe went on for an injured Dan Biggar after just 12 minutes in Lyon, and he promptly took charge, kicking six penalties, a drop-goal and conversion.
His 23-point haul equalled Biggar’s record for most points by a Wales player in a World Cup match, although the 32-year-old would have set a new mark had he not missed a straightforward conversion following captain Jac Morgan’s late try.
“‘Biggsy’ reminded me that apparently the last kick was to beat his record, so I am hacked off I have only tied that,” Anscombe added.
“Dan is a great man and we get along so well, but he has given me a bit of stick about that!”
Biggar looks likely to miss the Georgia game because of a strained pectoral muscle, but there are no suggestions at this stage that he could be doubtful for a potential World Cup last-eight clash against Argentina in Marseille seven days later.
“We know how important Dan is for the group, particularly on and off the field with the energy he brings,” Anscombe said.
“It was just really important when I went on that I brought some control and steadied the ship like he does so well.
“We always talk about nailing our roles, and all I was thinking about was making sure I was accurate and bringing some control.
“What was great was that we kept the scoreboard ticking. We have to give a lot of credit to our forwards. We squeezed them at set-piece time, took the points on offer and kept the scoreboard ticking off the back of that.
“I felt like I was building quite nicely in the summer (training) camps, and then I broke my hand. I thought at one point it was my World Cup done.
“I owe a lot of thanks to the team behind the scenes here. The medical team did a fantastic job to get me back on the field, and the coaching staff backed me without much game-time.
“There is still so much to work on from a personal perspective, but it was so nice to spend some time in the big arena.”
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