Saxons tame Eagles in opener
Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:11
England's giant wing Matt Banahan celebrated his Saxons debut by scoring a hat-trick to help England Saxons to a 64-10 victory over the United States in the opening round of the Churchill Cup in Ottawa on Saturday.
In an exhilarating display of running rugby, the Saxons braved the baking hot Ottawa sun to run in nine tries, including one apiece for fellow newcomers Ben Foden and Tom Biggs.
The two nations last met in the opening round of the 2007 World Cup, when England ran out winners by 28-10.
Coach Steve Bates was rightly pleased with his Saxons team's impressive performance.
"The US fought very hard for the first 20 minutes or so and it took us a little bit of time to settle," Bates said.
Flyhalf Ryan Lamb put his Guinness Premiership Final disappointment behind him by landing nine kicks from 10 attempts and Leicester Tigers No.8 Jordan Crane celebrated his 22nd birthday earlier in the week with a fine all round display that earned him the man of the match award.
"They are a very talented group of players," added Bates.
"There's still plenty to work on but I'm very pleased with the overall performance.
"I thought George Chuter had a fantastic game, Jordan [Crane] did well too. Paul Hodgson at scrum half was outstanding, he rallied the troops and broke well to set up a few scores. And of course Matt Banahan scored a hat trick, so it was a good day all round."
Despite landing an early Ryan Lamb penalty, it took England a while to settle against a very physical US side. After 15 minutes, a series of forward drives edged England closer to the try line allowing 6'7" lock turned wing Banahan to dive over for his first of the day.
The Eagles were right back into it when wing Gavin Debartolo raced away from the cover defence for an interception try just after the half hour. Mike Hercus' touchline conversion narrowed the gap to just 10-7, but England's growing confidence in their fluid attacking abilities really began to show as they ran in two tries in quick succession in the closing minutes.
A second Banahan try, this time from a cross-field kick created and converted by Lamb, was quickly followed by a sensational series of offloads which freed lock George Skivington to charge over. Lamb's faultless first-half kicking display gave the Saxons a deserved 24-7 lead going in to the break.
After missing a penalty in the opening minutes of the first half, the US made no such mistake in the second period, when Hercus kicked off the scoring with a penalty on 43 minutes.
But from there on in it was one way traffic as England added five second half tries to wrap up a successful first outing.
A second break from the impressively mobile Skivington set up centre Anthony Allen, before Banahan completed his hat-trick.
A series of substitutions helped England maintain the intensity and their efforts up front were rewarded when referee Andrew McPherson penalised the US for pulled down a maul by awarding a penalty try. Lamb's seventh kick extended the score to 52-10 after 70 minutes, before Leeds Carnegie wing Tom Biggs' finally found the try line after several excellent earlier attempts and Ugo Monye celebrated taking the field with a 70-metre solo effort to round off an impressive opening performance for the men in white.
The scorers:
For England Saxons:
Tries: Banahan 2, Skivington, Allen, Foden, Penalty try, Biggs, Monye
Cons: Lamb 8
Pen: Lamb
For the United States:
Try: Debartolo
Con: Hercus
Pen: Hercus
Teams:
United States Eagles: 15 Chris Wyles (OMBAC), 14 Gavin Debartolo (Eastern Suburbs), 13 Paul Emerick (Newport Gwent), 12 Albert Tuipulotu (Beziers), 11
Mike Palefau (Petrarca), 10 Mike Hercus (IBM), 9 Mike Petri (NYAC), 8 Henry Bloomfield (Belmont Shore), 7 Todd Clever, Captain (OMBAC), 6 Louis Stanfill (Cal-Berkeley), 5 John Van Der Giessen (Denver Barbarians), 4 Ben Wiedemer (Belmont Shore), 3 Mate Moekiola (Pukekohe), 2 Mark Crick (PAC), 1 Mike MacDonald (Leeds Carnegie).
Replacements: 16 Saimone Laulaupea'alu (San Francisco Golden Gate), 17 Chad Slaby (Chicago Lions), 18 Brian Doyle (NYAC), 19 Jason Lett (Boston Irish Wolfhounds), 20 Robbie Shaw (Connacht and Galwegians), 21 Nese Malifa (Belmont Shore), 22 Vaha Esikia (Las Vegas Blackjacks).
England Saxons: 15 Ben Foden (Sale Sharks), 14 Tom Biggs (Leeds Carnegie), 13 Ollie Smith (Leicester Tigers), 12 Anthony Allen (Gloucester Rugby), 11 Matt Banahan (Bath Rugby), 10 Ryan Lamb (Gloucester Rugby), 9 Paul Hodgson (London Irish), 8 Jordan Crane (Leicester Tigers), 7 Will Skinner (Harlequins, captain), 6 Chris Jones (Sale
Sharks), 5 George Skivington (London Wasps), 4 Richard Blaze (Leicester Tigers), 3 Dave Wilson (Newcastle Falcons), 2 George Chuter (Leicester Tigers), 1 Nick Lloyd (Saracens).
Replacements: 16 Andy Titterrell (Gloucester Rugby), 17 Jack Forster (Gloucester Rugby), 18 Tom Guest (Harlequins), 19 Chris Robshaw (Harlequins), 20 Steffon Armitage (London Irish), 21 Nick Abendanon (Bath Rugby), 22 Ugo Monye (Harlequins).
Referee: Andrew McPherson (Scotland)
