Leicester Tigers
England Saxons v USA Match Report & Photos
By RichW
June 6 2011
I have a problem...no nothing like that! Don’t be so tawdry! A problem with writing a review of a game like Saturday’s: 95 points scored; two scratch sides; one featuring nearly 15 players I’ve not heard of before. Oh well...
Franklins Gardens is a handsome ground really and the pitch is a billiard table baize sward. It’s always been a fine pitch. In the early June sunshine the Gardens was a great place to watch a game of rugby with a decent crowd hailing from all over England (if the range of shirts was any guide - I saw Worcester and Exeter, London Irish and Gloucester shirts as well as numerous from Leicester and Northampton) and also an impressive number hailing from North America.
All was set fair as they say.
The opening skirmishes gave something the lie as to what was to come. The white shirts failed to take the kick-off and a solid American lineout followed and they then developed a number of short driving phases of the side of the ruck making slow but steady yardage in to the English 22 before they earned a penalty to take an early, and frankly deserved, three point lead.
If that gave us hope of a competitive encounter we were disabused of that hope in short time.
I won’t begin to try to describe every succeeding score - there were simply too many. Suffice to say the English responded quickly and devastatingly. It became quickly apparent that the game was to be a one sided affair with Miles Benjamin benefitting from a clever grubber from the impressive Mike Brown in a chase to the line for his first score of a subsequent hat-trick.
Benjamin was unfortunate to be pipped, in my opinion, to Sky’s Man of the Match award by the generally excellent Billy Twelvetrees. Whilst Billy used space superbly and his passing was at times sublime the Worcester man was something of a ball magnet all day. His work rate was huge. He tracked the ball, carried hard with good pace and power, tackled well and his tries came from good positioning, hard work and footwork. He was ubiquitous.
After his first try Mike Brown seized on some loose passing by the Eagles to run the ball in unopposed for a second try and his first of a brace in no time. But by then it was already apparent that the US side was in for a long, hard and punishing day at the scrummage.
Those watching on Sky, rather than at the ground would be forgiven for thinking, in the first half at least, that there was only one England player on the pitch such was the attention and admiration they lavished on Matt Stevens. Truth be told the Sarries man played well - very well - though the quality of his scrummaging opposition was debatable. But it wasn’t solely down to him that the US scrum went backwards constantly as if on roller-skates. His front-row companions Matt Mullen and Joe Gray were both excellent and Mauritz Botha and Dave Attwood offered tremendous locking power behind. And, with my Tigers hat on, I was delighted that when Kieran ‘the Fridge’ (my but he’s a big lad!) Brookes came on for a brief cameo on the tight-head side for Stevens just before the half-time oranges and then later when he replaced the impressive Mullen on the other side, he was also highly effective.
But on Stevens - he scrummaged well, and carried hard, he gave some nice deft touches and most of all - he played 80 minutes. To this observer, he still needs games - but he looks like he’s moving well towards a ticket to New Zealand in the autumn.
Elsewhere, and despite the disruptive early loss of blind-side flanker Gaskell, England were winning the battle at the breakdown too with Exeter flanker Tom Johnson figuring large; good over the ball and and showing pace and awareness around the park, linking well and making some impressive darts, taking his second half try accelerating into a fine in-out, weaving run into the gap and the line.
By then - and again, happily, from a Tigers’ perspective - Micky Young had shown what we are hoping to see from him next year. Yes he had an armchair ride from his forwards, but he bossed them confidently, broke and kicked well and his service was smooth. He will give Ben Youngs good competition and Tigers excellent cover next term. He took his try well too, finding the gap in broken play with some good footwork to head to the posts.
The first half finished with a penalty try as the US scrum was marched backwards yet again for yet another in the latest in a seemingly endless procession of scrum penalties as Mullen and Brookes and Gray mashed their opponents yet again. The colonials could have had few complaints if Nigel Owens had reached for his yellow card but in keeping a full US eight on the park he did his best to maintain what competitiveness was left in the game. But in all honesty the game was over as a spectacle by then.
The second half produced more of the same.
A continuous supply of good ball came and Young and his half-back partner Quin Rory Clegg served it to Twelvetrees who ran hard and, with his passing put his fellow backs into space that they exploited ruthlessly.
Tries came from Brown, Johnson, Trinder and the electric Sharples, from Billy himself, the hat-trick score from Mile Benjamin after great build up work by Johnson and Benjamin; from Graham Kitchener in an excellent 20 minute contribution in which he combined with captain Jordan Crane, who had an terrific game showing that he has skills and pace Leicester rarely utilise, to create the try of the game as he dummied before displaying the acceleration of a three-quarter to then send replacement scrum-half Paul Hodgson under the posts.
The Eagles continued to work hard and at times put good phases together when they won ball but they were unable to make real progress until right at the death when they went back to the basics of their opening minutes of the forwards making regular phase play with frequent pods carrying the ball metre by metre to finally earn themselves a consolation score, well appreciated by the watching crowd.
They battled manfully and their second rows John van der Giessen and Scott Lavalla battled hard in a beaten pack, with their lineout working well amidst the chaos and number 8, JJ Gagiano, carrying hard and bravely from the retreating scrummage base. In the backs Colin Hawley and Mile Pulu on the wing worked hard but in the absence of quality players like Taku Ngwenya and Chris Wyles in no department were they superior. They ended up well beaten.
Whilst no-one would have denied the Eagles their score it did nothing to hide the gulf between these two sides. It was true enough that Eagles coach Eddie O’Sullivan was denied the services of several of his best players and and indeed in this game he chose to look at the depth of his squad to see who might step up but international rugby does itself no favours with mis-matches like this. That the American’s had not played together in over seven months and it showed. Remember this was England’s second string - and a youthful one at that - that outclassed their opponents. The world game needs to sort out how it intends to support such nations as the US because at present they aren’t making the progress we need.
Of the England side there were numerous fine performances and I’ve already offered my thoughts on the man of the match but there will be sterner tests ahead in this tournament. I’d like to see them playing with a little more structure to impose their own shape rather than simply exploiting the numerous opportunities offered by opposing failings. Tonga will offer a tougher test next week. Still - plenty to be positive about. Not least from a Tigers perspective with old hands Crane and Twelvetrees and new boys Young, Kitchener and Brookes all enjoying fine afternoons in the sunshine.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:06:20:21:00:24 by Stephen Bath.
Can't blame the lad - if the TJ is going to let you run onto the pitch before you throw it in then fair do's - happened at just about every lineout for 80 mins!
...
It is right growing rugby nations are given a hand up and the opportunity to test themselves, and it's nice for the English lads to have a confidence boosting exhibition match, but you're so right, Rich, in that the IRB need to get their act together ,,, this is not like the plumpyship where the thrashed are bed-blockers, they are intent on joining the best and deserve a helping hand ,,, perhaps a salary cap would do the trick?
Cheers for the report, an entertaining one at that.
'Profit Motive' .. the Vaseline of genocides.
'Reality' .. the new cynicism
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