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Flying start for the Saxons in Ottawa

11/ 6/2008

ENGLAND’S giant wing Matt Banahan celebrated his Saxons debut by scoring a hat-trick to help England Saxons to a 64-10 victory over the USA in the opening round of the Barclays Churchill Cup in Ottawa on Saturday.

In an exhilirating display of running rugby, which featured ex-Shark Ben Foden and current second row star Chris Jones, the Saxons braved the baking hot Ottawa sun to run in nine tries, including one apiece for newcomers Foden and Tom Biggs.

Coach Steve Bates was rightly pleased with his Saxons team’s impressive performance. "They are a very talented group of players," said Bates. "There’s still plenty to work on, but I’m very pleased with the overall performance."

Despite landing an early Ryan Lamb penalty, it took England a while to settle against a very physical USA side. After 15 minutes, a series of forward drives edged England closer to the try line allowing 6’7" lock turned wing Banahan to dive over for his first of the day.

Later, a second Banahan try, this time from a cross-field kick created and converted by Lamb, was quickly followed by a sensational series of offloads which freed lock George Skivington to charge over. Lamb’s faultless first half kicking display gave the Saxons a deserved 24-7 lead going in to the break.

After missing a penalty in the opening minutes of the first half, the USA made no such mistake in the second period, when Mike Hercus kicked off the scoring with a penalty on 43 minutes.

But from there on in it was one-way traffic as England added five second-half tries to wrap up a successful first outing.

A second break from the impressively mobile Skivington set up centre Anthony Allen, before Banahan completed his hat-trick.

A series of substitutions helped England maintain the intensity, and their efforts up front were rewarded when referee Andrew McPherson penalised the USA for pulled down a maul by awarding a penalty try.

Lamb’s seventh kick extended the score to 52-10 after 70 minutes, before Leeds Carnegie winger Tom Biggs finally found the try line after several excellent earlier attempts and Ugo Monye celebrated taking the field with a 70m solo effort to round off an impressive opening performance for the men in white.

Saxons next take on Ireland A on Saturday, June 14, at Fletcher’s Field, Toronto.