NewsBreakingOnline

• Email tom.lutz@guardian.co.uk with all your musings • Press F5 to refresh this page or use our auto-refresher • Follow Tom on Twitter if that’s your thing • Watch World Cup video highlights, interviews and more 56 min: Romania retain the pressure after a scrum-five. Various forwards attempt to crash over but England hold firm. The ball eventually finds its way to England off a stray Romanian boot but they caused England problems for far too long then. 55.04 min: Armitage is on for Foden at full-back. 55 min: Romania have another line-out near the England line but lose out again. They have been pathetic in that area today. Romania continue to pressure though. “This seems a tiny bit better from England, though the way the ITV commentators are going on you’d think it was France they were thrashing,” says Dan Lucas. “I find myself shouting (tweeting) ‘I don’t care what Phil Vickery thinks’, then realising that sentiment suggests that Phil Vickery is capable of thought.” Yup, England are playing well now but this is a second-string Romania side. The cheerleading when England were struggling early on was odd. 52 min: Pressure from Romania, who get within five metres of England’s line. They can’t win the line-out though and England clear. Moody’s lost his contact lens which is floating somewhere behind his eyeball. He’ll need to get a scalpel on that later. 50 min: Mears is on for Thompson. TRY!!!! England 44-3 Romania: Foden gets the score. England win the line-out, the ball comes to Tuilagi, who crashes through the Romania line. Foden’s finish is simplicity itself. Flood gets the conversion to make it England 46-3 Romania . 48 min: England decide to run it, which they do but backwards. Flood eventually clears. Hang on, why are they clearing if they’re on the run? 46 min: May be tougher for England in the second-half. Romania have brought on a few of their better players – they were rested in the first-half that they’d decided they couldn’t win. 45 min: Romania miss the penalty, Dumbrave from distance. 44 min: Romania find some space and look half-threatening but drop the ball. They then win a penalty – they weren’t back 10 metres. TRY!!! England 39-3 Youngs romps home. Manu Tuilagi breaks and hands off to Youngs, who trots home. Not a Romanian tackle to be seen. Flood misses the conversion. 41 min: Wilton is on for Cole and Flood is in for Wilkinson. Half-time: Romania have a good chance to score at the end of the half. Thompson is caught offside after Romania nearly break through following a clever chip. Dumbrava takes the kick from the resulting penalty but hits the post. Like many of the big sides playing against the minor nations this World Cup, England started very slowly but their wingers made the difference. 40 min: Moody’s getting treatment after colliding with a team-mate. Romania have another penalty but miss from long-distance. 37 min: Romania get points on the board after Dumbrava slots over the penalty. That’s how England opened the scoring, so there’s still hope yet. England 34-3 Romania . TRY!!!! England 32-0 Romania: Ashton gets his second. Youngs draws his man, Thompson has a wee run before passing to Ashton who has a straight run for the try. Wilkinson then makes in England 34-0 Romania with the conversion. 34 min: Much, much better from England in the last 10 minutes or so. Although Poparlan nearly intercepts a pass which, in all probability, would have led to a try. TRY!! England 25-0 Romania: Line-out for England. Haskell unloads to Ashton who fends off his man before nipping between two and touching down. Wilkinson gets the conversion England 27-0 Romania . 29 min: Brief scare for England as Dumitras chunters through their line but Romania are eventually stutter after they fail to release the ball. TRY!!!! England 20-0 Romania: England nick the ball from a ruck and flow up the pitch. Cueto gets the final pass and dives over for his hat-trick, or is it? It’s referred to replay, there was doubt he touched down but it’s given. Wilkinson can’t make the conversion from way over on the left. 25 min: Wilkinson chips the ball to Ashton, the first attempt at showboating and a welcome one too. TRY!!!!! England 13-0 Romania: England steal possession after the Romania line-out. Youngs takes a quick tap after England spread the play and Cueto breaks over the line after a few nice dummies. Wilkinson’s conversion is successful: England 15-0 Romania . 20 min: Romania are a sloppy side, which makes England’s failure to break them down consistently disappointing. Poparlan gets treatment from the medic, which consists of water being poured on his head. It works too. 18 min: I had to check it was Ashton who had set up that try, he almost seemed to be playing at centre. England: the maverick’s workhorses. TRY!!!! England 8-0 Romania: Cueto dives home. Ashton created it, speeding through a hole in the Romania defence and Cueto had the easiest of finishes. Wilkinson drags the conversion wide. 15 min: Romania don’t release and Wilkinson finds touch from the kick. England have a line-out a few metres out. Croft is penalised for obstruction though – Johnson raises his eyes to the heavens. On the plus side, England are winning. 12 min: Sirbu, the Romanian scrum-half, has a nice jinking run then produces a kick behind that is nearly run down by a team-mate. England clear though. 11 min: Romania give away a penalty but Wilkinson can’t find touch. England really haven’t been too impressive in terms of doing the simple things right yet. 8 min: England penalised again as they attack. Not the most disciplined of starts. Romania’s line-out didn’t look straight to me but no matter England soon win possession but a forward pass disrupts their momentum. Well, stops it. 6 min: England surge towards the Romania line, but they’re done for not releasing a few metres from the line and their opponents clear. 4 min: Interesting that Australia didn’t attempt a single kick at goal yesterday against USA, while England took the three points at the first opportunity. 3 min: Romania attempt an early attack down the ground, which lasts about 5 metres. England are soon on the attack and win a penalty, which they decide to kick at goal. Jonny splits the posts. England 3-0 Romania. “Ulysses?!” splutters Peter Gibbs. ” This is more exciting . 1 min: We’re off. Having just walked through King’s Cross at 6am I can report the atmosphere is electric: just saw loads of kids pouring out of a club, their eyes shining, their jaws working furiously as they chewed gum, presumably to relieve the tension. This match has gripped people who don’t even look like rugby fans. 6.53am: Dressing room watch: Romania are in a huddle. Steve Thompson tries to form one in the England dressing room but everyone ignores him. Ah, hang on Lewis Moody just joined him. Good captaincy. 6.51am: The only thing more exciting on a Saturday morning than an England pool match: 6.47am: “This match was a bit hard to get up for,” says Peter Gibbs. Not if your bedtime is 9pm anyway, Peter! “Predictions?” I will say England 56-7 Romania and Martin Johnson’s team still to get criticised by the press. 6.40am: A few facts and figures for you. • England are assured of a quarter-final place if they win today and Argentina fail to beat Scotland on Sunday • England have not lost a World Cup match against European opponents since 1995, when they were beaten by France. Romania aren’t as good as France. • England have never lost a World Cup match against a team from outside the Tri Nations and Six Nations. Romania are not part of the Tri Nations or Six Nations. • After two matches at this World Cup, Romania were one of two teams not to produce a single clean line break. Samoa were the other. • In their first two matches, Romania conceded 26 penalties. Only Australia conceded more (27) in their first two matches. That means lots of opportunities for kicks at goal, the choice of the discerning neutral. Morning. First up, your teams for today: England: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Mike Tindall, 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Ben Youngs, 1 Alex Corbisiero, Steve Thompson, 3 Dan Cole, 4 Louis Deacon, 5 Tom Palmer, 6 Tom Croft, 7 Lewis Moody (capt), 8 James Haskell. Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 David Wilson, 18 Simon Shaw, 19 Tom Wood, 20 Richard Wigglesworth, 21 Toby Flood, 22 Delon Armitage. Romania: 15 Florin Adrian Vlaicu, 14 Stefan Eugen Ciuntu, 13 Ionel Cazan, 12 Iulian Dumitras, 11 Adrian Marian Apostol, 10 Marin Danut Dumbrava, 9 Lucian Mihai Sirbu, 8 Ovidiu Tonita, 7 Cosmin Aurel Ratiu, 6 Sandu Stelian Burcea, 5 Cristian Constantin Petre (capt), 4 Valentin Poparlan, 3 Silviu Florea, 2 Bogdan Zebega Suman, 1 Nicolae Nere. Replacements: 16 Marius Tincu, 17 Paulica Ion, 18 Mihai Macovei, 19 Daniel Gabriel Ianus, 20 Valentin Nicolae Calafeteanu, 21 Csaba Minya Gal, 22 Catalin Marius Nicolae. Mike Tindall, who has apparently been in the news of late, returns to the team as do Jonny Wilkinson, Mark Cueto, Steve Thompson, Alex Corbisiero, Tom Croft and Louis Deacon. England will, of course win this game, but it’s the manner of victory that’s important. The fact is that people back home want entertainment at ridiculously early times on a Saturday morning. Down the years Ceefax has provided it, the Open University has provided it, Ulysses 31 has provided it. Why can’t England? Rugby World Cup 2011 England rugby union team Romania rugby union team Rugby union Tom Lutz guardian.co.uk