Zach Kibirige on the charge for England

England Under 58 Georgia Under 18

England Under 18 kicked off their FIRA tournament with an eight-try 58-8 victory over Georgia under the Madrid morning sun. A hat-trick from Joel Conlon and tries from Zach Kibirige, Nathan Earle, Nick Carpenter, Tom Stephenson and Javiah Pohe helped John Fletcher’s side to the win, while fly half Sam Olver kicked 18 points.

Olver got England on the board with a third minute penalty but just two minutes later full back Zibirige demonstrated his electric pace to run in an impressive 70-yard try.

A Georgian penalty got the men in red to within seven of England, but another penalty from Olver and a try from No. 8 Joel Conlon brought up the 20 points.

England’s third try came as a result of a lovely reverse pass from scrum half Tom Chapman which freed up wing Nathan Earle to touch down and round off the first half scoring with England 27-3 up.

Conlon got his second try of the game early in the second half, touching down a driving maul after good work from the pack. Centre Nick Carpenter scored England’s fifth, capitalising on a loose Georgian kick, before replacement Tom Stephenson showed good footwork to get over the line to make the score 48-3.

There was brief respite for Georgia with ten left to play when their blindside flanker freed up space to score under the posts. But England hit back with two late tries, Conlon rounded off his hat-trick – picking up at the base of a scrum – and Pohe touched down in the corner with almost his first touch to give England a 58-8 victory.

Head Coach Fletcher said: “We’re pleased with the result, but more pleased with the performance. We spoke about stepping it up from our last game and I think we did that today. Our forwards did well , the set-piece was good and we just did the basics right which is what you have to do.

“We moved the ball around and created options – lots of people got their hands on the ball and demonstrated what good players they are.”

Points: Kibirige 1T, Conlon 3T, Earle 1T, Stephenson 1T, Carpenter 1T, Pohe 1T; Olver 2P, 6C

England U18 starting XV v Georgia

15 Zach Kibirige (Yarm School) (Newcastle Falcons)
14 Howard Packman (Moulton College) (Northampton Saints)
13 George Catchpole (Leicester Grammar) (Leicester Tigers)
12 Nick Carpenter (Filton College) (Bristol Rugby)
11 Nathan Earle (Oaklands) (Saracens)
10 Sam Olver (Oundle School) (Northampton Saints)
9 Tom Chapman (Colfe’s School) (Saracens)

1 Harry Rudkin (Wyggeston & Queen Elizabeth 1st) (Leicester Tigers)
2 Harry Thacker (Leicester Grammar) (Leicester Tigers)
3 Scott Wilson (Sedbergh School) (Newcastle Falcons)
4 Maro Itoje (Harrow School) (Saracens)
5 Charlie Ewels (Bryanston School) (Bath Rugby)
6 Max Northcote-Green (Millfield) (Bath Rugby)
7 Gus Jones (Eton College) (London Wasps)
8 Joel Conlon (Ivybridge Community College) (Exeter Chiefs)

Replacements

16 Reece Marshall (Moulton College) (Northampton Saints)on Harry Thacker
17 Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi (Moulton College) (Northampton Saints) on for Harry Rudkin
18 Alex Lundberg  (Hampton) (London Wasps) on for Scott Wilson
19 Jake Oldaker (Wellington College) (Bath Rugby) on for Charlie Ewels
20 Josh Buggea (Hartpury College) (Worcester Warriors) on for Max Northcote-Green
21 Callum Braley (Hartpury College) (Bristol Rugby)
22 Billy Burns (Hartpury College) (Gloucester Rugby)
23 Javiah Pohe (Wyggeston  & Queen Elizabeth 1st) (Leicester Tigers) on for Joel Conlon
24 Tom Stephenson (Moulton College) (Northampton Saints) on for Tom Stephenson
25 Josh Watkins (Bromsgrove School) (Worcester Warriors)
26 Ross Moriarty (Hartpury College) (Gloucester)