England win boosts hopes for World Cup group of death

England finished their Rugby World Cup warm-up matches with a 21-13 win over Ireland on Saturday, while one of their group rivals suffered a potentially devastating double-injury blow.

Wales, who along with Fiji, Uruguay and Australia, make up the traditional big tournament 'Pool of Death', faced Italy in Cardiff on Saturday in what was supposed to be a comfortable win against a side thrashed 48-7 by Scotland last week.

But Italy were unrecognisable from the rabble that succumbed to the Scots and in labouring to a 23-19 victory Wales witnessed two of their stars stretchered off with what appear to be serious injuries.

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Scrum-half Rhys Webb, recently voted Wales' Player of the Year, suffered a first-half ankle injury and was in considerable pain as he left the Millennium Stadium. A subsequent scan revealed no fractures but the 26-year-old was still receiving morphine on Sunday and it is feared ligament damage will rule him out of the World Cup.

The other casualty is Leigh Halfpenny, the world-class full-back who has kicked 508 points for Wales in 62 Tests and is known as one of the planet's most reliable goalkickers. Halfpenny damaged his right knee ten minutes from time and won't be assessed until today. once the swelling has subsided.

Reports in the Welsh press on Sunday suggested he'd injured his cruciate ligaments and was unlikely to be fit for the World Cup. "They don't look too good at the moment, but we'll just have to wait and see," admitted Wales coach Warren Gatland, adding that "if the injuries are bad we might have to bring in players, but we won't know [until this week]."

Halfpenny is practically irreplaceable, but Wales can at least call on veteran Mike Phillips if Webb is ruled out. The former Lions' scrum-half has won 94 caps and was a controversial omission when Gatland unveiled his squad last month.

England, on the other hand, not only got through the final warm-up match unscathed, but did so with a performance that was far superior to the ragged display against France last month when they were well beaten in Paris.

Early tries from Anthony Watson and Jonny May gave England a 12-3 cushion, and though Ireland scored a try of their own through Paul O'Connell they were clearly inferior for most of the match.

The victory will boost England ahead of their World Cup opener against Fiji on Friday week and coach Stuart Lancaster declared on Saturday evening that "this team is ready".

He went on: "There are six or seven teams who could win it... Ireland, Australia, Wales, New Zealand, South Africa, the list goes on, and whoever does win it will have to put together a run of six or seven performances on the bounce. That's our challenge as well, but playing at Twickenham the way we did against Ireland, we're a hard team to beat."