1 February 2008 

Please find to follow a selection of player quotes, following England Saxons’ 31-13 victory over Ireland A at Welford Road tonight.

Jordan Crane (Leicester Tigers, captain)
“I couldn’t have asked for anything better, it’s a great honour to captain your country, especially at this level, and to do it at Welford Road was fantastic.  Carrying the ball is a big part of my game and I tried to do it the best I could.  We’ve only had three training sessions as a squad so it took us a little while to gel but towards the end of the game it started to come together and that was great to see.”

Tom Varndell (Leicester Tigers)
“Throughout the team there were some really positive performances.  Jordan led really well from the front and considering we’re such a young team, I think our average age is 23, I think we showed that hopefully the future is looking good for English rugby.  I love playing here (at Welford Road), the crowd were fantastic and the boys did well.  But we’ve still got a lot to work on and take forward for next week.”

Shane Geraghty (London Irish)
“When we kept the ball in hand we showed our strength.  In the second half we got quick ball and I think looked pretty dangerous, perhaps we hadn’t managed to do that so much in the first half.  The forwards had a great second half and made it easy for us and to put Tom (Varndell) in the corner was a great feeling.  I’m happy to play 10 or 12, when games open up there’s not a massive amount of difference.”

Nick Kennedy (London Irish)
“I was disappointed with the lineouts in the first half, I have to hold my hand up to that.  But we didn’t panic and we put it right and went on to win the game.  They had lots of experience so it was brilliant that we fronted up and played well and I’m happy with the way it ended up.  We’ve only been together for a few days, hopefully we can iron our any mistakes over the next week in time for Italy.”

Delon Armitage (London Irish)
“The boys played really well today.  If the team performs we all know that everyone stands a better chance of making the step up.  We played together as a team and because of that there were some good performances.  I didn’t think I would have to kick tonight (Delon took over the kicking duties when Lamb left the field after 18 minutes) – I haven’t done any practice all week so it was a bit of a shock but it was good fun!”

Ryan Lamb (Gloucester Rugby)
“I’m having a scan in the morning, I’m not really sure what I’ve done (Ryan was replaced after 18 minutes due to a shoulder injury).  Obviously I was really disappointed to come off so early, I wanted to put in a good performance.  But you have to bounce back and just get back to playing for your club and take it from there.”

Nick Wood (Gloucester Rugby)
“The Irish were very experienced and managed to slow the ball down a lot.  The front row was a good contest.  I think we looked after our own ball much better in the second half and erased our mistakes which kept us in the mix and eventually put us away at the end.”

Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints)
“It’s hard to come off the bench and get involved but I thought the subs made a difference and lifted the tempo.  It was just good to get out there.  In the first half, the Irish got stuck into us and managed to slow down a lot of our ball.  But in the second half we picked up the tempo.”

Phil Dowson (Newcastle Falcons)
“I’m massively pleased.  We’ve had a good week training, a few of the guys know each other from last year’s Churchill Cup.  The coaching has been exceptional, we’ve got our house in order and everything went well today.  Our defence was solid and out kicking game was good.  I thought Shane (Geraghty) played well, as did Lee Dickson, tactically we played in the right areas of the pitch and the front five were exceptional.”

Ends