England stamped their passage to the Rugby World Cup knockout stages this afternoon in Lille, winger Henry Arundell among those impressing, with five tries, against Chile.

Their third win in a row, against the low-ranked nation at the tournament, sees England top Pool D with a game to spare, having obtained fourteen of fifteen available points and certainly answered some of their attacking critics with this convincing display.

Finalists four years ago, England were on the front foot from the start at Stade Pierre-Mauroy, early set piece pressure pinning Pablo Lemoine’s Chile deep in their own defensive twenty-two within five minutes.

Dominance in the scrum provided the attacking platform from which they should have scored, Marcus Smith firing a pass with just too much zip for Max Malins, to reprieve the Chileans.

Rapid counterattacking and fine carrying from Matias Garafulic then reversed the roles as Chile asked questions of their own, in an end-to-end opening spell.

Skippered by flanker, Martin Sigren, the captain led by example with an exemplar defensive turnover as the South Americans hustled, harried, and frustrated England.

However, more strong scrummaging proved the key to unlocking the door for England as the forwards did the grunt work well and returning Owen Farrell, spun a fine pass out wide which was gathered and scored calmly by Henry Arundell, the conversion just wide as England struck first.

Four minutes later and England again exposed Chile’s set piece weaknesses as a rumbling lineout was collected and mauled over the line, hooker Theo Dan starting and finishing the score which Farrell converted for a 12-0 lead.

On the half hour, the third try came as Farrell tapped a penalty quickly and from there the scorers combined, Dan freeing Arundell with a precise pass wide as the winger cantered into the corner for his second try in ten minutes, Farrell’s attempted conversion again drifting left of the posts.

Six minutes out from half time, the bonus point was sealed as Bevan Rodd rotated nimbly and muscled his way across the line to dot down, joining Dan in scoring his first England try, Farrell adding the extras to make it 24-0, England in command after an iffy opening quarter.

Icing the first half cake was a fifth try on the cusp of the interval, Farrell feeding Marcus Smith who intelligently grubbered through, sped onto and gathered his own kick, gleefully galloping into the corner, Farrell landing a fine conversion as England entered the break with a pep in their step.

The second half started in the same vein; Chile reduced to fourteen for the fifth time at this tournament when Matias Dittus saw yellow.

Immediate punishment came as Dan had a simple task of motoring over from another unstoppable maul, the hooker on for a hattrick with plenty of time remaining.

Arundell, though, beat his teammate to it, the winger capitalising on more hesitant Chilean defending to dive over for his memorable third of the game, Farrell converting both to make it 45-0.

Amazement of Arundell continued to follow with the winger scoring England’s eighth and his fourth on the hour, chipping ahead and confidently catching, dashing in again, the extras added as Steve Borthwick’s side ticked past the half-century of points.

Another Arundell try came with eleven minutes left, Smith and Farrell smartly combining to release Arundell who again accelerated away, finishing expertly for the ninth English try, Chile out on their feet in a draining encounter for the World Cup debutants.

Smith instigated and scored his second in the closing stages with a speedy burst from deep and he burst onto George Ford’s pass to smash over, Farrell increasing his haul to fourteen with the extras.

Jack Willis waltzed over with the final play as Farrell moved to within one point of Jonny Wilkinson’s points record for England with the last act, an eight successful conversion. 

An emphatic attacking England performance totalling eleven tries as Chile tired against a rampant, free-flowing English team.

Chile face their final match of the tournament in a week’s time against Argentina in Nantes (2pm KO), whilst England can enjoy a fortnight’s recovery before playing Samoa in Lille, to round off their Pool D campaign (4:45pm KO).