England 36, Tonga 20: Sackey the saviour as England survive spirited Tonga assault

There were periods of desperate insecurity – sufficient to drive strong men in white shirts to drink – but England still hold the Webb Ellis Trophy and will defend it further, with everything they have, in the south of France next weekend. Last night, in the capital city, they withstood a hugely energetic and enthusiastic assault by Tonga, whose astonishing performances in this tournament would not have been predicted by Nostradamus himself, and finally made some progress with an attacking game that seemed to have disappeared for all eternity. Come the end, they were good value for their four-try victory.

Not that there was a vast amount to recommend the holders until Mathew Tait, the quicksilver centre from Newcastle, took the game away from Tonga with a fine try just shy of the hour mark. Until then, the islanders had been well in the contest; indeed, they had led until the 35th minute. Two first-half scores from Paul Sackey, who is growing in stature by the game, ensured England would reach the break in one piece, but there had been some profoundly unnerving moments for the head coach, Brian Ashton, and his back-room colleagues.

Any notion that England's driving forward play would smithereen the Tongans out of the game in the opening half-hour evaporated before the first beads of sweat appeared on the champions' brows. The islanders were secure in the scrum, ferociously competitive at the rucks and so strong in open field that Jonny Wilkinson, the prince of tackling outside-halves, found himself in all manner of strife. Epi Taione, who once played alongside Wilkinson at Newcastle, caused the lion's share of the mayhem, but he was not alone. If England ever see the Tongan back row of Nili Latu, Hale T-Pole and Finau Maka again it will be way too soon.

Latu caused trouble of every kind. Lewis Moody, brought into the back row to play a specific role against the Tongan captain, had been injured in the opening exchanges – the Leicester flanker zeroed in on Pierre Hola as the stand-off cleared the ball after being played into trouble by Joseph Vaka, only to be rewarded with a faceful of shinbone – and had still not recovered his full range of faculties when he was smashed hard and high by his opposite number and horizontalised a second time. It was not his night, one way or another.

Yet there was far more to Tonga's rugby than the big-hit routine that once defined their act. Taione and the excellent Premiership hooker from Worcester, Aleki Lutui, were more than a match for the champions with ball in hand, and while Andy Gomarsall's know-how at scrum-half helped prevent Maka making his customary yardage from the base of the set-piece, the turnover count was very much in the islanders' favour.

It was Tonga who opened the scoring – a long-range penalty from Hola that reminded England of the need for absolute discipline – and Tonga who claimed the first try, a sliding finish by the sidestepping centre Sukanaivalu Hufanga, who picked a clever supporting line as Taione knocked Wilkinson clean out of the way and took the pass at an angle so precise that he was able to wrong-foot the covering Sackey with disconcerting ease. Hola converted to put his side 10-3 ahead at the end of the first quarter.

England needed to make something happen, and quickly, for the thought of a Pacific uprising on the scale of Samoa's in Melbourne during the 2003 tournament was too grisly for words. The Bath prop Matt Stevens, playing his best game at Test level, was the man who obliged, twice driving hard and fast into the soft underbelly of the Tongan defence from the restart. There were Tongan hands in the ruck, and a penalty was duly awarded. Instantly, Wilkinson spotted Sackey in an acre of space on the right wing and sent a long diagonal punt into the in-goal area. Sackey, under pressure from the substantial figure of Vaka did brilliantly to ground the ball with his right foot millimetres from the out-of-bounds line.

A drop goal and a penalty from Wilkinson took England ahead for the first time, and their nervous tension was further relieved when Hola threw a bouncing Barnes-Wallace of a pass at the bootlaces of the unfortunate Vaka, thereby allowing the ultra-rapid Sackey to gather and sprint 80 metres for a second sucker-punch try.

Some vintage Wilkinson goal-kicking might have propelled England into some sort of comfort zone, but he missed both conversion attempts and then, immediately after the interval, fluffed a straightforward 40-metre shot head on to the posts. This unexpected frailty gave the Tongans some heart, and Hola reduced the arrears to six points with an easy kick of his own.

Once again, there was an air of unease about the champions. Once again, they reacted to it positively and wrapped up the game in the process. Mark Cueto, who had not enjoyed the most comfortable of evenings on the left wing, suddenly burst into clear blue water in the Tongan 22. Andy Farrell, on at inside centre for Olly Barkley, would have scored had the wing passed rather than taken contact, but the ball was recycled and spun left, where Nick Easter released Tait on a thoroughbred's run to the line.

Eleven minutes later, it was Farrell's turn to find a way on to the scoreboard. The former Great Britain rugby league captain took a pass from Wilkinson and beat the tackle of the incendiary T-Pole – no mean feat, given the New Zealand-based flanker's love of all things physical – to register his first international try in the union code. His celebrations were long and loud, unsurprisingly in light of the criticism he has absorbed since making the cut for this competition, but they were well down on the decibels generated by the Parisian crowd as they cheered a last-minute touchdown from T-Pole in the left corner.