Harlequins duo shine as England beat the Barbarians
Marcus Smith and Alex Dombrandt excelled in front of Eddie Jones as England successfully navigated their way through the tricky annual fixture against the Barbarians by registering a 51-43 victory at Twickenham.
The Harlequins duo both scored to press their claims for inclusion in Jones’ first World Cup training squad, which is to be named at the end of the month.
Smith withdrew from the England Under-20s squad bound for the junior world championships in order to prove himself against a star-studded Barbarians line-up containing 478 caps, and that bold decision paid off.
The 20-year-old fly-half played intelligently and added to his clever try with three penalties and six conversions in an unblemished afternoon from the kicking tee to finish man of the match.
Dombrandt reproduced the powerful carrying and sharp lines that have lit up Harlequins’ season and while neither he nor Smith are likely to travel to Japan this autumn, they identified themselves as fringe contenders.
Centre Joe Marchant and scrum-half Alex Mitchell also starred as England, who were coached by the Rugby Football Union’s pathway development coach Jim Mallinder, were forced to survive a second-half Barbarians fightback.
Four tries in quick succession gave Pat Lam’s men sight of the finishing line only for Dombrandt’s second try and the kicking of Smith to shut the door.
An impressive crowd of 17,402 attended the England women’s 40-14 victory in their historic maiden fixture against the Barbarians that launched the afternoon, with that figure increasing to 40,230 for the main event.
The willingness to attack from inside their own 22 led to the Barbarians conceding early on as centre Johnny Williams pounced on a poorly-executed midfield move to send Josh Bassett over in the left corner.
The response was a two-try salvo that began when All Blacks fly-half Colin Slade spotted James Horwill was in acres of space and hoisted an inch-perfect kick for the retiring Harlequins lock to touch down.
Barbarians line-out trickery enabled their second as the ball was thrown to Joe Marler and two drives later Francois Louw was over.
But their lead soon gave way to a hefty deficit as three converted tries in six minutes sent England into the break 31-12 ahead.
Marchant initiated the first of two high-quality tries by using quick feet to create an opening and with the impressive Mitchell and Ben Curry outside him in support, full-back Simon Hammersley was able to cross.
Smith was the next to score through an out-stretched arm as he cleverly chose the moment to get involved in England’s attack and created enough doubt in Barbarians minds to force a gap.
Dombrandt then completed a thrilling spell by cantering over after Mitchell had intercepted Rhys Webb’s pass at a line-out.
Turning from scorer to provider, Dombrandt expertly read an overly-ambitious Barbarians move to leap on a loose ball and charge forward before offloading to Johnny Williams.
Sharp hands conjured a try for Mark Atkinson to stem the flow of England points and when replacement Rhodri Williams finished a move that started from inside the 22, the Barbarians suddenly had hope.
Atkinson’s second after a dazzling run from Charles Piutau ate further into the deficit and the revival continued when a line-out was driven over, with Dave Heffernan crossing.
England now only led by three points but a Smith penalty and Dombrandt’s second try put them out of sight.
PA
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments