Scrappy England scrape past Baa-baas
Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:39
Cheap shot: Jerry Collins hits Toby Flood from behind
England will depart for their tour of New Zealand on a low note, after a disappointing display in their 17-14 win over the Barbarians at Twickenham on Sunday.
Rob Andrew, standing in for team manager Martin Johnson, sent out a side well below full strength, but he must have been concerned by the lack of quality among his reserves - ahead of the far more daunting challenges ahead.
Although no players from Wasps, Leicester or Bath featured, this was the worst possible results ahead of Test matches against the All Blacks in Auckland and Christchurch later this month.
England fielded 12 of the squad that will head to New Zealand on Monday, and centre Mathew Tait was the only bright spot as he scored England's match-clinching second try courtesy of a devastating sidestep.
But England were sucked into a scrappy encounter notable only for injuries to backs Charlie Hodgson and Toby Flood, who both left the field nursing facial wounds.
England captain Nick Easter admitted his side had a lot of work to do before the New Zealand Tests.
"We wanted to play an expansive game, but it got a bit messy at the breakdown and it was very frustrating," Easter said in his post-match interview.
"A win is a win, but the breakdown is becoming key. It's a real fight down there and neither side was clinical through the phases.
"The execution wasn't quite there, both sides only had a week to prepare so I suppose you could put it down to that. We have to do a lot more work."
It should have been an end-of-season extravaganza, yet England will head for Heathrow on Monday having raised far more questions than they provided answers.
Easter and Tait scored tries, with Flood adding a penalty, while the Newcastle centre and Harlequins fullback Mike Brown each landed a conversion.
Man-of-the-match Seilala Mapusua and wing Gareth Thomas scored tries for the Barbarians - Andy Gomarsall and Glen Jackson kicked conversions - but there was precious little to enthuse Red Rose supporters.
The scorers:
For England:
Tries: Easter, Tait
Cons: Flood, Brown
Pens: Flood
For the Barbarians:
Tries: Mapusua, Thomas
Cons: Gomarsall, Jackson
Teams:
England: 15 Mike Brown (Harlequins), 14 Topsy Ojo (London Irish), 13 Mathew Tait (Newcastle), 12 Toby Flood (Newcastle), 11 David Strettle (Harlequins), 10 Charlie Hodgson (Sale Sharks), 9 Richard Wigglesworth (Sale Sharks), 8 Nick Easter (Harlequins, captain), 7 Will Skinner (Harlequins), 6 Luke Narraway (Gloucester), 5 Nick Kennedy (London Irish), 4 Chris Jones (Sale Sharks), 3 Jason Hobson (Bristol), David Paice (London Irish), 1 Nick Lloyd (Saracens).
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley (Northampton), 17
David Wilson (Newcastle), 18 Stuart Hooper (Leeds Carnegie), 19 Tom Guest (Harlequins), 20 Danny Care (Harlequins), 21 Pete Richards (London Irish), 22 Ugo Monye (Harlequins).
Barbarians: 15 Thinus Delport (Worcester), 14 Gareth Thomas (Cardiff Blues), 13 Morgan Turinui (Queensland Reds), 12 Seilala Mapusua (London Irish), 11 Iain Balshaw (Gloucester), 10 Stephen Larkham (unattached)/Glen Jackson (Saracens), 9 Andy Gomarsall (Harlequins), 8 Pedrie Wannenburg (Blue Bulls), 7 Maama Molitika (Cardiff Blues)/David Croft (Queensland Reds), 6 Jerry Collins (unattached), 5 Justin Harrison (Bath), 4 Kris Chesney (Saracens), 3 Cobus Visagie (Saracens), 2 Mark Regan (Bristol, captain), 1 Fédérico Pucciariello (Munster).
Replacements: 16 Sebastian Bruno (Sale Sharks), 17 Patricio Collazo (Gloucester), 18 Santiago Dellape (Biarritz), 19 David Croft/Mitchell Chapman, 20 Michael Claassens (Bath), 21 Stephen Larkham/Glen Jackson, 22 Jaco
Pretorius (Lions).
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Touch judges: Alan Lewis. (Ireland), Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
TMO: John Burtenshaw (England)
