England Counties kicked of their Netherlands tour with a 36-8 victory over the Netherlands’ ‘A’ side last night.

Fraser Honey opened the scoring at Amsterdam’s National Stadium with an early penalty before Nick Ashcroft scored a try shortly after, which Honey converted, following a penalty from the Dutch.

Charlie Venables of Leeds Beckett University added a second try shortly after, before scrum half Josh Nott added another, with Honey adding to his own personal tally with a pair of conversions for a 24-3 half time lead.

Moving into the second half, former Bedford School star Ollie Burgess added to the England total with a good piece of opportunistic play, before his centre partner Connor Wilkinson, once of Kirkham Grammar School, added another for a 36-3 lead.

The Netherlands kept plugging away though, and with time running low they managed to secure a score of their own to end the game at 36-8 in the favour of England Counties U20.

The England Counties side are in action again on Saturday, facing a Netherlands senior side at Watergaareden, kicking off at 2.30pm.

Full Time: England Counties U20 36-8 Netherlands ‘A’

England Counties U20 XV:

1 Seb Brownhill (Bishop’s Stortford/Hertfordshire)

2 Chris Taylor (Preston GrassHoppers/Cheshire)

3 Karl Garside (Old Albanians/Herfordshire)

4 Cameron Gray (Coventry/Warwickshire)

5 Nick Ashcroft (Fylde/Lancashire)

6 Seb Cecil (University of Nottingham and Nottingham Academy/East Midlands)

7 Sam Bailey (Bournemouth/Loughborough and Dorset & Wiltshire)

8 Sam Hudson (Otley and Loughborough University/Yorkshire)

9 Josh Nott (Broadstreet and Nottingham Academy/Warwickshire)

10 Fraser Honey (Cornish All Blacks/Cornwall)

11 Tom Carleton (Fylde and Manchester Met/Lancashire)

12 Connor Wilkinson (Fylde and Manchester Met/Lancashire)

13 Ollie Burgess (Old Albanians/East Midlands)

14 Charlie Venables (Leeds Beckett/Cheshire)

15 Tobias Robinson (St Austell/Cornwall)

Replacements: 16 John Whittaker (Sandbach/Cheshire), 17 Griffi Whitson (Reading University/Berkshire), 18 William Dennis (Harrogate/Yorkshire), 19 Tui Uru (Ipswich/Eastern Counties), 20 Rob Fogerty(Brighton Blues/Sussex), 21 Matt Bendin (Hertfordshire), 22 Will Luxford (Old Elthamians/Kent).