England made an impressive start to their preparations for the IRB Under-19 World Championships in Durban in March with a 37-13 win over Scotland at Fylde this afternoon.
England had to weather an early storm from Scotland, who opened up a ten points lead midway through the first half, but their forwards eventually assumed control.
England scored six tries, five of them in an impressive second half display in which they had Scotland in all sorts of trouble in the scrums.
"It was a good way to start, particularly as this is a new team and this is the first team we have played together," said Tosh Askew, England's coach/manager.
"That showed at times early on but once we got th boys to refocus at half time I thought it was a very controlled performance."
Askew singled out Sale Sharks openside flanker Michael Hills and Barnard Castle School centre Matthew Tait for particular praise. Hills was an effective link between forwards and backs and Tait was a constant menace to Scotland's defence.
Hills also scored England's only first half try from a line-out drive but Chris Goodman was driven over twice after the break, winger Tom dawes showed good ball control to drible over from 40 metres and Tait himself hacked through.
Tait and Hills also linked well to set up full-back Olly Morgan and fly-half Ryan Lamb landed two conversions and a penalty.
The game was watched by a crowd of around 2,000 and included a sizeable contingent of schoolchildren and former British Lions captain Bill Beaumont.
Beaumont presented the England players with their shirts before the game and was delighted that the game was played at his old club.
"It's great that international rugby has come to Fylde," he said. "These are the next generation of England players and it's great that they have taken their first international steps at my old club."
England's squad included Leicester Tigers centre Tom Gregory who began his career in the mini and youth section at Fylde.
England Under-19s:
15 Olly Morgan (Gloucester & Millfield School);
14 Topsy Ojo (London Irish),
13 Matthew Tait (Barnard Castle School),
12 Rory Teague (Gloucester),
11 Tom Dawes (Colston's Collegiate School);
10 Ryan Lamb (Gloucester & St Peter's HS),
9 Derry Coughlan (London Irish & John Fisher School);
1 Daniel Greenhalgh (Sale Sharks),
2 Stuart Mackie (Newcastle Falcons),
3 Mark Lambert (NEC Harlequins),
4 Tom Ryder (Leicester Tigers - captain),
5 Sean Cox (Sale Sharks & Vale of Lune),
6 Matthew Cook (Bradford Bulls & Woodhouse Grove School),
7 Michael Hills (Sale Sharks),
8 Chris Goodman (Bath).
Replacements used:
Mark Simpson-Daniel (Sale Sharks) for Coughlan 34,
Tom Gregory (Leicester Tigers) for Teague 57,
Dylan Hartley (Worcester) for Greenhalgh 41.
Referee: Mr David Keane (Ireland) |
