March 14, 2008
England Students 30 Irish Colleges 14
England Students put in a strong second half performance to finish with five tries and a comfortable win over Irish Colleges at Henley RFC tonight.
Left wing Tom Hockedy, in his second year at Exeter University studying sports science, scored two tries after half-time to complete a memorable week after he had picked up a hat-trick in a BUSA Cup quarter-final win away to Durham on Wednesday.
"Five tries in two matches is pretty good," said Hockedy, "but it was the effort put in by the guys inside me tonight which made it all happen.
"I didn’t see much of the ball in the first half but there was a lot more space after that and when you are getting plenty of ball as a wing you’re always happy."
Both teams had racked up 40-plus points in wins over Scottish Universities in recent matches so a close game was anticipated at Dry Leas.
That was the way of it in the first half with the Irish competing ferociously at the breakdown and forcing a couple of turnovers.
But as the match wore on the visitors fell foul of Scottish referee David Walker and two Irish yellow cards early in the final quarter gave England the green light to pull clear.
Twelve of the England 22 had been involved in Wednesday’s BUSA quarter-finals. Injuries in those matches had ruled out Hartpury fly half Tristan Roberts and Loughborough full back Giles Pryor.
Tim Stevenson stepped into the No 10 jersey for England and although his kicking radar was off-kilter with five misses, the Hartpury man finished in style by converting his own try 12 minutes from time to round the scoring off.
England led 13-8 at the interval after tries in the first 11 minutes by second row Adrian Griffiths and right wing Adrian Wright.
Ireland were forced to clear hurriedly behind a scrum in their 22 and after England captain Ian Kench won the line-out at the tail, South African-born No 8 Andries Pretorius burst off a maul and found Griffiths on his shoulder to score.
That was followed by an England attack on the Irish 22 which saw centre Phil Ellis cut through a gap and full back Tom Jarvis joined the line to send Wright in at the right corner.
Irish Colleges fly half Phil DeBarra kicked a penalty after 14 minutes and there was a try for Irish full back John Nicol after wing David Rowan slipped a tackle by Ellis, before Stevenson kicked a penalty goal in the 38th minute.
DeBarra kicked two more penalties after 41 and 49 minutes to give Ireland the lead.
But England’s pack were getting on top with loosehead prop Aaron Liffchak having a useful match and two Irish forwards – replacement No 8 Ian Cullinan and tighthead prop Stephen Snell – went to the sin bin in the 61st and 68th minutes respectively.
Hockedy went over twice in Cullinan’s absence and Stevenson scored while Ireland were down to 13 men.
Hockedy was on the end of passes from James Lumby – on for Pretorius, who had limped off – and centre Tom Gregory before fixing his opposing wing Philip Howard with a semi-sidestep and scooting past him to the left corner.
For his second try Hockedy had an easier task, picking up with only a metre to go after Jarvis chased his own grubber through the Irish defence.
England’s fifth try – their third in nine minutes – came when the forwards mauled into the Ireland 22 and Stevenson forced his way over.
"In some ways this laid the ghosts to rest from our opening defeat this season in France," said England Students coach Steve Hill.
"People like our captain Ian Kench wanted to make up for a below-par performance by the team that night and they did that.
"Tom Hockedy’s first try was a bit special and I thought our flankers Michael Denbee and Peter Clarke did well for us. Several of the players had played two internationals on successive weekends with a BUSA cup match in between, and that is a tough schedule."
England Students: T Jarvis (UWE Hartpury); A Wright (Loughborough), T Gregory (Oxford), P Ellis (Hertfordshire), T Hockedy (Exeter); T Stevenson (UWE Hartpury), D Shaw (Newcastle); A Liffchak (Hertfordshire), J Moyce (St Mary’s College), J Horn-Smith (Exeter), I Kench (Loughborough, capt), A Griffiths (Bath), P Clarke (Oxford), M Denbee (Plympouth), A Pretorius (UWE Hartpury).
Replacements: M Cross (Loughborough) for Moyce 76, K Davis (Oxford) for Horn-Smith 57, S Pitfield (Loughborough) for Griffiths 76, J Lumby (Cambridge) for Pretorius 48, T Henry (Oxford) for Shaw 67, C Ashwin (Bath) for Stevenson 74, S Armstrong (Leeds Met) for Hockedy 76.
Scorers: tries: Griffiths, Wright, Hockedy 2, Stevenson; con: Stevenson; pen: Stevenson
Irish Colleges: J Nicol (Stranmillis UC Belfast); P Howard (IADT Dun Laoghaire), P O’Toole (Garda), M O’Shea (Garda), D Rowan (IADT Dun Laoghaire); P DeBarra (IT Carlow), B O’Brien (Blackhall Place, Dublin, capt); S Cahill (Dun Laoghaire VEC), J Taggart (Univ of Ulster, Jordanstown), S Snell (NCI), D Carley (IT Carlow), B Reilly (Dublin City University), J Downey (Sallynoggin VEC), H Hogan (Griffith College Dublin), D Kenny (Dun Laoghaire VEC).
Replacements: A Guiry (Limerick IT) for Downey 74-77, J Morgan (Univ of Ulster, Jordanstown) for Taggart 80, B Holmes (DIT) for Carley 75, I Cullinan (NUIG) for Kenny 59, B Moroney (IT Tallaght) for Rowan 80, C Morrin (IT Tallaght) for O’Shea 80.
Scorers: try: Nicol, pens: DeBarra 3.
Sin-bin: Cullinan 60, Snell 67.
Referee: D Walker (Scotland).
Ends
