Friday 18th March 2005
England Sevens 41 Italy 0Saracen’s winger Richard Haughton scored a hat-trick in the first half of England’s second pool game match against Italy, to help England to their second victory of the day.
It was another encouraging performance from the three-time Hong Kong Sevens winners as they kept the Italians from scoring whilst scoring seven tries themselves.
Haughton scored a total of eight tries in last year’s Hong Kong Sevens but is trying not to keep a tally this year, “It is obviously an ideal start for me and the team and I couldn’t have asked for more this morning. However, I am not going to think about how many I got last year, we just need to keep focusing on winning each game. The team are relaxed but we know that with each game we must step up a level. I really enjoy playing here and the support for England is already pretty strong.”
Ben Gollings also crossed the line in the first half to help England lead 22-0 at the break.
In the second half England scored a further three tries. Great team work led to Peter Richards (London Wasps) crossing the line, whilst Rob Thirlby (Penzance & Newlyn) and Ugo Monye (NEC Harlequins) both bagged a try each, resulting in a final score of 41-0 to England.
England Sevens Coach Mike Friday was pleased with his team’s performance against the Italians, “I am very happy with us having kept two clean score sheets in our first two matches. I would love us to keep doing that in all our matches but I am not sure that is realistic! We need to concentrate on France now for our final match of day one and will be looking to build on our performance in the Italy game, and improve every time we take to the pitch.”
England play France in their final match of Day One at 12.58 UK time.
Scorers:
England – Richard Haughton (3), Ben Gollings, Peter Richards, Rob Thirlby, Ugo Monye
Conversions – Ben Gollings (3)
Teams:
England – Geoff Appleford (London Irish), Tony Roques (London Irish), Pat Sanderson (Worcester Warriors), Peter Richards (London Wasps), Rob Thirlby (Penzance & Newlyn), Ben Gollings, Richard Haughton (Saracens)
Reps: Ugo Monye (NEC Harlequins), Neil Starling (Northampton Saints), Simon Amor (Gloucester)
Reps not used: Phil Dowson (Newcastle Falcons), Henry Paul (Gloucester)
Italy – Steven Bortolussi, Javier Dragotto, Nicola Leonardi, Alvaro Lopez Gonzales, Jacob Gaina, Antonio Mannato, Luca Martin
Reps: Pablo Canavosio, Emiliano Mulieri, Ezio Galon
Reps not used: Tomas Pucciariello, Benajmin de Jager
Referee: Brett Bowden (Australia)
Ends.
