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England shatter Canada in Investec opener
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ENGLAND 70 CANADA 0 |
England captain and Investec Challenge man of the match Jason Robinson ran in a hat-trick as his side rattled up a record breaking score against the Canadians at Twickenham this afternoon. The Sale Shark opened his sides account after eight minutes, added a second on 35 minutes and completed his afternoon’s work with a wonderful touchdown, jinking and weaving his way up the left touchline, on 49 minutes to send the 41,784 crowd into raptures. In all England ran in 12 tries that also included two for both wings newboy Mark Cueto and Josh Lewsey and the winning margin could have been more had fly half Charlie Hodgson had his kicking boots on having missed with five conversion attempts. Head coach Andy Robinson said: “Jason Robinson has been exceptional as a captain, he’s led from the front as expected. We know we have to step up for next week. South Africa have not beaten us for a couple of years - it’s going to be a tough physical game.” Jason Robinson commented: “It was a good start for us. One of the most positive things was that we kept them to nil. For me it was a very proud day. It was great to be captain and to score tries and get a result is brilliant.” While Hodgson had a poor day with the boot his play with ball in hand was superb and it was his break and lovely long weighted pass that set up Robinson for the games opening try. And Robinson also had a hand in England’s second, five minutes later, following scrum half Andy Gomarsall’s huge break off the base of a scrum. Robinson was hauled down in the Canadian 22 but the ball was played back to Mike Tindall for the centre to send his World Cup winning teammate Josh Lewsey away for number two. Lewsey also scored the third try, latching on to Hodgson’s pinpoint cross kick, and on 30 minutes England were 22-0 in front after another well worked score with centre Henry Paul involved twice before his midfield partner Tindall touched down. Hodgson, at last, converted but saw his next attempt rebound off the upright following a debut try for his Sale clubmate Mark Cueto put away by his club captain Robinson who topped and tailed the half with the second of his touchdowns. It came from a superb England build-up that included good work from another of the newboys flanker Andy Hazell and an awesome pick-up off his toes by Robinson before darting over. Leading 32-0 at half-time England had increased their lead within three minutes of the second half after Hodgson had embarked on a dazzling solo run from ruck ball 27 metres out from the Canucks line to touchdown and then kick the conversion. Robinson completed his hat-trick six minutes later with Henry Paul knocking over the conversion from the touchline for a 46-0 lead as England began to ring the changes. Andrew Sheridan came on for prop Julian White and Ben Cohen replaced Robinson with Lewsey taking over at full back. Greenwood also came on for Hodgson with Paul moving to stand-off and Ben Kay replacing Danny Grewcock in the second row. Greenwood made an immediate impact on the game by adding England’s ninth try following well won ball at a line-out from Kay and the forwards drive to the line. Paul’s neat chip through the Canadian defence was judged to perfection for Greenwood to pounce. Paul added the conversion as he did to England’s 10th four minutes later following Ben Cohen’s big midfield break taken on by Gomarsall before unleashing Cueto for his second. With all the tries scored by the backs up to that point the England forwards finally showed they could do it themselves with a huge drive that resulted in flanker Lewis Moody being driven over. With three minutes to go England unleashed one last big effort as Tindall carved his way through the Canucks defence and found Cohen who was held up inches short of the line for replacement Hugh Vyvyvan to pick up and drop over the line. It was a confidence boosting performance by England prior to their two matches against South Africa and Australia over the next two weekends with some notable performances. None the least from Paul who had his finest outing to date in an England shirt while Cueto looked at ease on the right wing and Lewsey looked hungry on the left. Up front Moody and new flanker Andy Hazell both had storming games in the back row along with No. 8 Martin Corry who won a lot of line-out ball. And, in the front-row, the veteran loose-head Graham Rowntree was impressive in all that he did. Canadian coach Ric Suggitt said: "You never feel good when you lose games like that we need to improve our awareness on the field. We need to play more games of this quality. I would love to play England 20 times a year and I’m sure the players would love to too." ENGLAND: Robinson(c) (Cohen 51); Cueto, Tindall, Paul, Lewsey; Hodgson, Gomarsall; Rowntree, Thompson (Titterrell), White (Sheridan 51); Grewcock (Kay 55), Borthwick; Moody, Hazell, Corry (Vyvyan). Reps not used – Charlton. SCORING SEQUENCE: 8m Robinson try 5-0; 13m Lewsey try 10-0; 20m Lewsey try 15-0; 30m Tindall try, Hodgson con 22-0; 32m Cueto try 27-0; 35m Robinson try 32-0; H/T 32-0; 43m Hodgson try, Hodgson con 39-0; 49m Robinson try, Paul con 46-0; 61m Greenwood try, Paul con 53-0; 65m Cueto try, con Paul 60-0; 72m Moody try 65-0; 77m Vyvyan try 70-0. |