Barbarians put England to the sword

Lionless locals mauled by famous visitors

The star-studded Barbarians gave England a lesson in champagne rugby at Twickenham on Saturday, recorded a comprehensive 52-39 victory over the Canada-bound locals.

The inexperienced England side simply failed to match the superior class of the multi-capped Baa-baas, and they leaked eight tries, with Northampton playmaker Bruce Reihana, Wallaby star Wendell Sailor, and Springbok flyer Brent Russell each bagging a brace.

But despite being forced onto the defensive for long periods, England replied with five tries of their own.

New London Wasps wing Paul Sackey marked his England debut with two and his club-mate Ayoola Erinle also touched down on his first appearance for his country.

Replacement loose forward James Forrester and skipper Pat Sanderson weighed in with two late consolation tries for England which gave the scoreline a respectable appearance, but the late efforts could not hide the fact England were outplayed for much of this end-of-season showpiece match.

Indeed, on the evidence of this performance, England's shadow team have a lot of improvement to make before they leave for the Churchill Cup tour to Canada on June 9.

They could meet Argentina in the final and after the spirited display in Monday night's draw against the British Lions at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, the Pumas will fancy their chances against an England team minus their 21 Lion stars.

Their absence showed up front where England were out-gunned and the distinct lack of early possession forced them into a largely-rearguard action.

Coach Joe Lydon, in charge while head coach Andy Robinson is on British Lions' duty in New Zealand, will have been heartened for a while by their defensive resolve in the first half as the quick-handed centre consistently released centres Halstead and Thomas Castaignède on the burst.

England dug in to show their defensive resolve after Spencer and Halstead sent Reihana over to touch down next to the left-hand corner flag in the seventh minute.

But the pressure and extra quality of the Barbarians breached the England defence twice more before half-time.

Sailor's power enable him to spin through two tackles for his 29th minute try and then Spencer burst through and, with two team-mates outside him, feinted and went again to beat England full-back Tom Voyce's despairing dive.

Sackey single-handedly put England back in contention, leaping high to take a loose ball before embarking on a 60-metre arching run for the line in which he beat four opponents.

A minute into the second half England momentarily went ahead when Erinle also scored on his England debut after Wasps' club-mate Voyce enterprisingly took a quick line-out throw to himself.

He made 30 metres before being hauled down and when the ball was recycled Goode cut inside to create the space and send Erinle in.

But the lead lasted less than 60 seconds before a magical burst by Spencer released Reihana for his second try, which he converted to restore the Baa-Baas lead at 24-20.

They effectively put the game out of sight when Sailor and Russell opened up England again for Halstead to touch down and then Sailor left England's Leicester Tigers' forward pair George Chuter and Louis Deacon standing as he struck again from close range.

The floodgates had well and truly opened, with Russell scoring his two tries to extend the Barbarians' lead to 52-20 which left England's late three-try reply simply too little too late.

The scorers:

For England:
Tries: Sackey 2, Erinle, Forrester, Sanderson
Cons: Goode 2, Vesty 2
Pens: Goode 2

For the Barbarians:
Tries: Reihana 2, Spencer, Halstead, Sailor 2, Russell 2
Cons: Reihana 6

The teams:

England: 15 Tom Voyce (London Wasps), 14 Paul Sackey (London Wasps), 13 Ayoola  Erinle (London Wasps), 12 Jamie Noon( Newcastle Falcons), 11 James Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester), 10 Andy Goode (Leicester Tigers), 9 Andy Gomarsall (Gloucester), 8 Hugh Vyvyan (Saracens), 7 Pat Sanderson (Worcester Warriors, captain), 6 Chris Jones (Sale Sharks), 5 Tom Palmer (Leeds Tykes), 4 Louis  Deacon (Leicester Tigers), 3 Micky Ward (Newcastle Falcons), 2 George Chuter (Leicester Tigers), 1 Mike Worsley (NEC Harlequins).
Replacements: 16 Lee Mears (Bath), 17 Robbie Morris (Northampton Saints), 18 Stuart Hooper (Leeds Tykes), 19 James Forrester (Gloucester), 20 Peter Richards (London Wasps), 21 Sam Vesty (Leicester Tigers), 22 Mathew Tait (Newcastle Falcons).

Barbarians: 15 Brent Russell (South Africa), 14 Wendell Sailor (Australia), 13 Thomas Castaignède (France), 12 Trevor Halstead (South Africa), 11 Bruce Reihana (New Zealand), 10 Carlos Spencer (New Zealand), 9 Mark Robinson ( New Zealand), 8 Johnny O'Connor (Ireland), 7 Sebastien Chabal (France), 6 Corné Krige (South Africa, captain), 5 Selborne Boome (South Africa), 4 Simon Shaw (England), 3 Cobus Visagie (South Africa), 2 Mark Regan (England), 1 Tom Smith (Scotland).
Replacements: Raphael Ibanez (France), Andrea Lo Cicero (Italy), AJ Venter (South Africa), Semo Sititi (Samoa), Bryan Redpath (Scotland), David Humphreys (Ireland), Girvan Dempsey (Ireland).

Referee: Stuart Dickinson (Australia)
Touch judges: Nigel Williams (Wales), Carlo Damasco (Italy) 
Television match official: David Changleng (Scotland)