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SCOTLAND A 35 - 0 ENGLAND SAXONS
NETHERDALE, GALASHIELS - Friday 3rd February 2012
KO: 7.30pm HT: 13-0
SCOTLAND A looked to claim only their third ever win over English opposition when they played England Saxons at Netherdale on Friday night.
England Saxons suffered a major setback when they went down to Scotland A at Galashiels and suffered only their second defeat in 20 games at this level in the process.
Duncan Weir led the way with a try, three conversions and three penalties in his 20-point haul, Duncan Hogg added a spectacular solo effort and Rob Harley and Matt Scott forced their way over late in the game.
The Saxons saw plenty of the ball in the Borders during the opening 40 minutes but never generated much in the way of momentum – James Gaskell and Ed Slater sin binned along the way – and paid the price for missing a handful of important tackles.
They had made eight changes to the side that won 23-17 against the O2 Ireland Wolfhounds including a debut for Leicester Tigers lock Slater with Dominic Waldouck (London Wasps) a late replacement for Jonathan Joseph (London Irish) in midfield.
Weir nudged Scotland in front with a fourth minute penalty but after a slow start the Saxons worked their way back into the game only for Hogg’s burst down the left to put them on the back foot.
The Glasgow full back’s 40 metre run and sidestep under the posts put the hosts 10-0 up after 17 minutes and the Saxons then lost skipper James Gaskell to the sin-bin two minutes before the break for a high tackle.
Weir’s second penalty sent them in 13-0 down and the Saxons made an instant change at fly half with Freddie Burns replacing Ryan Lamb and another shortly after with Kearnan Myall taking over from George Robson.
Any route back into the game was halted by Weir’s 52nd minute try as he shrugged off two sets of tackles to go under the posts, adding a conversion and a penalty five minutes later with Slater the second Saxon in the sin bin.
Harley forced his way over into the right-hand corner after a close-range scrum and Scott found a huge gap to accelerate through 12 minutes from time.15 Nick Abendanon 14 Ugo Monye 13 Dominic Waldouck 12 Billy Twelvetrees 11 Jonny May 10 Ryan Lamb 9 Ben Spencer 1 Nick Wood 2 Chris Brooker 3 Paul Doran-Jones 4 Ed Slater 5 George Robson 6 JAMES GASKELL [C] 7 Andy Saull 8 Tom Johnson BENCH: 16 Joe Gray 17 Rupert Harden 18 Kearnan Myall 19 David Seymour 20 Paul Hodgson 21 Freddie Burns 22 Miles Benjamin
J Gaskell, E Slater
15 Stuart Hogg 14 Tom Brown 13 Alex Grove 12 Matt Scott 11 Simon Danielli 10 Duncan Weir 9 RORY LAWSON [C] 1 Jon Welsh 2 Dougie Hall 3 Ed Kalman 4 Rob Harley 5 Tom Ryder 6 Stuart McInally 7 Chris Fusaro 8 Richie Vernon BENCH: 16 Pat MacArthur 17 Ryan Grant 18 Ryan Wilson 19 Roddy Grant 20 Henry Pyrgos 21 Phil Godman 22 Peter Murchie
SCORERS T: Hogg, Weir, Harley, Scott C: Weir (3) P: Weir (3)
ENGLAND SAXONS 23-17 IRISH WOLFHOUNDS
SANDY PARK, EXETER - Saturday 28th January 2012
KO: 5pm HT: 10-5 Att: 8,000
THE England Saxons ran roughshod over the Irish Wolfhounds at Sandy Park to emerge victorious 23-17.
O2 Ireland Wolfhounds coach Eric Elwood put out a mix of both youth and experience with nine uncapped players in his side, with the view that from this performance, seniors coach, Declan Kidney could finalise his RBS Six Nations squad for 2012. But despite the Irish youngsters crossing three times to England’s two, the latter’s flyhalf made all the difference in converting two tries and three penalties to give the home side the victory.
Freddie Burns opened the scoring within 5 minutes of kick off, and the Saxons remained on the front foot throughout the match. Ben Spencer crossed early to take his team ahead, and with Burns’ conversion, England were 10-0 up only 10 minutes in.
At the start of the second quarter, David Kearney picked a lethal running line to carve through the Saxons midfield and race over from 10 metres out, cutting the hosts' half-time lead to 10-5 in the process. But both 10s missed score-increasing opportunities before the half time whistle was blown with the conversion not finding the posts and Burns missing a penalty.
Not until the 53rd minute did the scoreboard see any movement when Leicester Tigers No. 8, Thomas Waldrom collected a ricochet from a grubber-kick to barge over the tryline. This was his opportunity to put up his hand for the EPS back row spot currently favouring Ben Morgan and Luke Narraway, and with the latter already suffering a calf strain from training on Friday, Waldrom is next in line for a call up.
Ian Keatley and Isaac Boss were substituted by Tomas O’Leary and Ian Madigan, who promptly proved themselves with a dart from the base of the ruck from the scrum half to find the whitewash, neatly converted by the replacement fly half, narrowing the gap to just 5 points again as England led 17-12.
The final quarter gave both sides the opportunity to illustrate just why this group of internationals, many uncapped, would be vying for full international honours as the benches were emptied and some positive moves resulted. But it was the homeside that capitalised on the penalties the Irish gifted with two more penalties from the boot of Freddie Burns despite him missing a third.
By the 80th minute, England were ahead 23-12 before Simon Zebo crossed from out wide to score a consolation try that went unconverted.
England Saxons now have just one more game against Scotland A on Friday, 3rd February at Netherdale the night before the senior sides battle it out for the Calcutta Cup.
SCORERS T: B Spencer, T Waldrom C: F Burns (2) P: F Burns (3)
15 Delon Armitage, 14 Ugo Monye, 13 Matt Hopper, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Matt Banahan, 10 Freddie Burns*, 9 Ben Spencer*, 1 Matt Mullan*, 2 Joe Gray*, 3 Paul Doran-Jones, 4 Matt Garvey*, 5 George Robson, 6 James Gaskell (C)*, 7 Andy Saull*, 8 Thomas Waldrom* BENCH: 16 Chris Brooker*, 17 Rupert Harden*, 18 Kearnan Myall*, 19 Tom Johnson, 20 Paul Hodgson, 21 Ryan Lamb, 22 Jonny May
SCORERS T: Kearney, O'Leary, S Zebo C: Madigan
15 Gavin Duffy, 14 David Kearney*, 13 Eoin O'Malley*, 12 Nevin Spence*, 11 Simon Zebo*, 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Isaac Boss, 1 Brett Wilkinson*, 2 Damien Varley, 3 Stephen Archer*, 4 Dan Tuohy, 5 Mike McCarthy, 6 John Muldoon, 7 Chris Henry (C), 8 Rhys Ruddock BENCH: 16 Mike Sherry*, 17 Ronan Loughney*, 18 Devin Toner, 19 Kevin McLaughlin, 20 Tomas O'Leary, 21 Ian Madigan*, 22 Denis Hurley
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