Steve Sutcliffe
BBC Sport

England edged towards a World Cup exit after their points chase against Papua New Guinea descended into a chaotic and error-strewn 34-12 victory that will almost certainly prove insufficient in the final reckoning.

Since their opening loss to Tonga, England's objective had been simple in their two remaining group games. Win and win well to have any hope of the reaching the last four.

They achieved that objective against France with a crushing 82-0 triumph and looked on course to make significant inroads into the 68-point deficit they needed to make up on Samoa when they led 22-0 after 22 minutes, courtesy of tries from Matty Ashton, AJ Brimson, Dominic Young and Harry Smith.

However, things went badly wrong from there on despite head coach Brian McDermott urging his players to the be patient in the build-up to this fixture.

A combination of repeatedly coughing up possession and conceding penalties restored belief in the Papua New Guinea ranks and Dudley Dotoi and Gairo Voro cashed in with tries for the Kumuls as England threw away the initiative.

The sight of England centre Herbie Farnworth being stripped of the ball running towards the try line moments before Mikey Lewis added another try to Morgan Knowles' second-half effort aptly summed up how things had slipped away.

England were guilty of making 21 errors and delivered a performance that included just a 57% completion rate, hardly good enough at this - or any - level.

It was the total opposite of the blueprint from the France game and it means England can now only reach the last four if Tonga defeat Samoa by more than 46 points.

As good as Kristian Woolf's side are, that appears highly improbable given they lost 34-6 to Samoa 12 months ago in Brisbane and have not registered a win over their neighbours since 2018.

Paul Eastwood, the British High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, is watching this match from the Wollongong Showground, and has seen for himself which way the crowd are leaning.

"There is a growing chant of ‘PNG, PNG, PNG’ in the stadium," he says.

In order to reach the semi-finals, England need to beat PNG and hope Tonga defeat Samoa on Sunday.

That would bring it down to points difference between England and Samoa - and England's is currently 68 points worse than Samoa.

So a win by 68 points tonight would mean any win for Tonga is good enough for England. But if the English don't reach that mark, they need the Tongans to really rack up a score against a Samoan side who reached the World Cup final four years ago.

And at this rate, England will be well short.

You get some spectacular views at the Wollongong Showground - those here for the England v Samoa women's match earlier caught the daylight and could see right out towards the sea.

Darkness has fallen for the men's match, but the view is still pretty special. Paul Eastwood, the British High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, is at the end England are attacking in the first half, and had a great sight of the teams emerging before kick-off.

England head coach Brian McDermott spoke to the media yesterday and stressed the need for his team to be patient as they chase the big score they are likely to need today.

The key message for his players: Don't panic if you don't rack up the points early.

"I suppose [it's a case of] whatever timescale it is before the arm wrestles starts to open up the game for each team," he said. "I'm not sure, it could be 15 [minutes], it could be 20, it could be 35, it could be the first half."

Two stats to bear in mind here: When England beat France 82-0 last Saturday, it them 22 minutes 26 seconds to get their first points on the board. And when Samoa beat Papua New Guinea 64-6 last weekend, they scored only 14 of their points in the first half - with six of their 13 tries coming in the final 15 minutes.

On the backfoot since being beaten 30-12 by Tonga in their opening game, England responded with a crushing 82-0 victory over France to keep alive their dreams.

England need to beat co-hosts Papua New Guinea – then hope Tonga beat Samoa on Sunday in Sydney.

If Samoa win, England will be eliminated because of their inferior head-to-head record against Tonga.

But if Tonga win, it comes down to points difference between England and Samoa - with England's currently 68 points worse than the Samoans.