England's RL World Cup exit confirmed after Tonga beat Samoa

Brian McDermott’s side needed Tonga to win by an unlikely 46 points to reach the last four for the seventh successive tournament.

Instead they are on the plane home from Australasia despite winning two of their three matches.

The 30-12 defeat by Tonga in the opening match proved costly, with an 82-0 win over France leaving England with 68 points to make up on Samoa.

They failed to make significant enough inroads in the 34-12 win over Papua New Guinea.

English hopes briefly flickered when Tonga led 8-0, Robert Toia scoring the opening try after a near 50-metre sprint.

With Isaiya Katoa converting and then kicking a penalty, England just needed Tonga to score another 39 unanswered points to stay in the tournament. However, Brian To’o’s try hauled Samoa back to 8-4 down at half-time.

Jojo Fifita put Tonga 14-4 ahead before To’o, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Ronald Volkman edged Samoa into a two-point lead, only for Addin Fonua-Blake to win it. Tonga will play New Zealand in the last four, while Samoa will face Australia in a repeat of the 2022 final.

New Zealand and Australia warmed up for the semi-finals with one-sided victories over Fiji and Cook Islands respectively.

The Kiwis ran in 13 tries, which included four for Casey McLean – who took his personal tally to 15 tries in seven Tests. Jamayne Isaako kicked all of his conversions in the 78-0 victory.

New Zealand winger Ronaldo Mulitalo and Fiji half-back Brandon Wakeham were sent off in the 52nd minute after the latter threw a punch having taken objection to Mulitalo’s high contact on Ronald Philitoga, who was unable to continue.

Wingers Jack Bostock and Tom Trbojevic both scored hat-tricks in Australia’s 66-6 demolition of Cook Islands. Incredibly the minnows led for six minutes after Ruatapu Ngatikaura went over and Valentine Holmes converted to cancel out Bostock’s early opener before winger Tom Trbojevic ensured normal service was restored.