Rugby World Cup: England stun the All Blacks to reach the final - how fans and Twitter reacted

RWC semi-final: England 19 New Zealand 7

England are through to their first Rugby World Cup final in 12 years after a magnificent performance against New Zealand in Yokohama.

The All Blacks, the two-time defending champions, came into the semi-final having not lost a World Cup match since 2007.

However, a second-minute Manu Tuilagi try, converted by Owen Farrell, set England on their way to securing a memorable 19-7 win.

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Ben Youngs and Sam Underhill saw tries ruled out by the TMO before Ardie Savea cut England’s lead to two points on 57 minutes.

However, George Ford’s four penalties - two before Savea’s converted try, and two after - put England into the final.

Eddie Jones’s men will now play Wales or South Africa in the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday 2 November in Yokohama (9am, live on ITV).

Coach and player reactions

Eddie Jones, England head coach

“What we’ve done is earn another week in the comp which is great. I thought our tactical discipline was great, our defensive work rate was good. I thought when we had opportunities to attack we attacked well.

“You want to go right to the death and we’re in the death now. We’ve got another week to enjoy ourselves and work as a team. Our players made a commitment to each other that they’d enjoy the World Cup and I think we’re seeing that.

“Whenever you play against New Zealand, you’re never happy. You might beat them on the scoreboard but you never really beat them. They kept coming at us and we needed to dig deep and find a bit extra.

“We’ve come here to be the world’s best and we haven’t done that yet, so that’s where we need to go.”

Owen Farrell, England captain

“It’s a big game, a World Cup semi-final against the All Blacks - as big as you can get. We prepared well, and started the game well. In all these big games, teams want to get physical from the off, and we wanted to play that way too.

“We have a number of ways of playing, we have a big powerful pack but we wanted to play to space as well. It’s brilliant to get there [to the final], we’ll enjoy this and make sure we prepare well.”

George Ford, England fly-half

“It was always going to be an incredible Test match, a semi-final, with both teams fighting for their lives. We said we would have to be near our best, but do our jobs and we knew we would be there or thereabouts.

“So we’ll take it, but what an incredible team NZ are to play against. It’s unique and you cannot switch off. Now we’ll prepare well for next week.

“We never switched off, ever! You cannot switch off for one second no matter what the scoreboard is, we had to fight until the end. We hope to better it next week, that’s what it is all about.”

Steve Hansen, All Blacks head coach

“Congratulations to England, they played a tremendous game of footy and deserved to win. You cannot give them half a step, but they took it.

“I am really proud of our team, they have done a tremendous job, but we were not good enough. We take it on the chin, the boys tried their guts out and I am proud of them.”

How Twitter reacted to England’s victory