International match: England have grown so accustomed to success at home that a serious pounding by the Barbarians at Twickenham yesterday came as something of a shock.
This was meant to be a chance for a few likely lads to play their way into the tour party for New Zealand and Australia being announced tomorrow but, on this occasion, Clive Woodward's youngsters proved unequal to the challenge.
Only Newcastle's Jamie Noon, whose two tries crowned a vibrant display at outside-centre, did his reputation any good against a fired-up Barbarians side who played with a pace and physicality which belied the game's non-cap status. They scored seven tries in total, four of them by Frenchmen.
It was certainly a far cry from last year when England won this equivalent fixture 53-29. This time an impressive crowd of 67,000 saw a far less penetrative home effort and it was the bone-shuddering efforts of such players as A J Venter and Jerry Collins which left by far the deeper impression.
Even players of the stature of Phil Vickery and Kyran Bracken could do little to stem the black-and-white tide and the main positive from Woodward's point of view, apart from Noon, was that England's younger forwards will be wiser men next time.
The learning curve for youngsters like Chris Jones and Michael Lipman could scarcely have been steeper in the first half-hour as the Barbarians, profiting from repeated uncertainty around the home fringes, rattled up three converted tries by Thomas Castaignede, Christian Califano and the excellent Kiwi scrumhalf Mark Robinson.
Castaignede's was something special, created by another Kiwi Sam Harding's one-handed interception, 50-metre sprint and clever cross-kick to his French team-mate which was reminiscent of Philippe Saint-Andre's famous try for France on this ground more than a decade ago.
At 21-3 up the Barbarians were cruising and it took a major slice of luck to get England back into the game, Dave Walder's penalty rebounding off an upright to allow the outhalf to put Lipman over. Noon's first try, initiated by Phil Christophers' half-break, narrowed the half-time deficit to 21-15 but the England scrummage was toiling and the back-row blend was equally unconvincing.
To no one's surprise the Barbarians swiftly stretched their lead through Jonathan Bell, even though Noon immediately showed a decent step and good speed to register his second try. Raphael Ibanez and Bruce Reihana, running through Christophers with disturbing ease, added further scores and, after a chip-and-chase score from Walder, Franck Tournaire strolled through to complete a hat-trick of French front-row scorers. The neat David Humphreys converted all seven tries.
ENGLAND: Scarbrough, Cueto, Noon, Johnston, Christophers, Walder, Bracken, M. Worsley, Regan, Vickery, Codling, Brown, Corry, Lipman, Jones.
BARBARIANS: Montgomery; Tuilevu, Castaignede, Bell, Reihana; Humphreys, Robinson; Califano, Sexton, Hayman, Venter, Connors, Collins, Harding, Randell.
Referee: I Ramage (Scotland).
Guardian Service
