It was England's most comprehensive performance of the tournament as they gained their third consecutive win in scoring 10 tries to none against the outclassed Romanians.

The forwards set the platform and the backs, running with much more freedom and speed, punched holes regularly through the overworked Romanian defence.

England had won their four previous Tests by heavy margins and started as favourites. They had beaten Argentina 13-9 and Georgia 41-10 in pool play while Romania had lost 24-34 to Scotland and 8-43 to the Pumas.

Jonny Wilkinson, three goals from eight attempts in his previous match at the stadium, settled early nerves with a penalty from 36m in the second minute and England from the outset were more adventurous.

That translated into the first try after 16 minutes when right wing Ashton made a clean break through the centre and left wing Cueto, in his comeback game, finished it off in the corner.

Cueto was in for his second six minutes later, dummying to the left and racing through a gap to score midway out.

Play was running Cueto's way and he had his hat-trick after 26 minutes when forwards and backs combined to give him a sharp sprint to the corner.

Ashton, always a dangerous runner, scored the fourth (bonus point) try after 32 minutes from a clever back flip from Wilkinson after the forwards won clean ball from a lineout.

The tries kept coming and Ashton scored his second when he sprinted away after the Romanian defence had been outflanked.

There was some slight relief for Romania, and the biggest cheer of the night from the crowd, when Marin Dumbrava kicked a regulation penalty to make it 34-3 at half-time.

England had played with more width and enterprise than at any stage of the tournament and Romania had spent most of the half defending. They had made 57 tackles but missed 15.

England increased their lead to 39-3 after just 21 seconds of the restart, scrum-half Ben Youngs scoring after he gathered an in-pass from Manu Tuilagi.

The seventh try came nine minutes into the half when Tuilagi made a clean break and fullback Ben Foden cantered to the line with Toby Flood, who had subbed Wilkinson, adding the conversion.

There was an immediate improvement in the Romanian scrummaging when regular captain and hooker Marius Tincu took the field as a sub but they could not breach the England defence.

Tuilagi, instrumental in setting up several tries, powered through to score midway through the spell and Flood's conversion made it 53-3.

Blindside flanker Tom Croft scored England's first forward try when he was on the end of an overlap and Flood's sideline conversion extended the lead to 60-3.

Ten minutes from the end Ashton completed his hat-trick try, England's 10th, as the lead blew out to 67-3.

Match facts:

Mark Cueto scored more tries in today's game than he had managed in his previous 28 Test matches for England.

Today marked the fifth time more than one player has scored a hat-trick in the same RWC match (Cueto & Ashton).

England made more tackles than Romania in the match (84 v 76), missing just two whilst the Romanians missed 23.

England still struggled with their discipline, conceding 13 penalties in the match (42 in total in the World Cup now), two more than Romania. 

Only five players have started more RWC games than Jonny Wilkinson (16), George Gregan, Jason Leonard,  Sean Fitzpatrick, Martin Johnson and Brian Lima.