England U18 finished their summer tour of South Africa with an impressive 52-22 victory over South Africa Schools.
It was England’s third game of the tour, which kicked off with a win over France, before a narrow loss to Wales last week. However they bounced back in style against the hosts on Saturday with eight tries.
The young English side took a 19-0 lead in to the half time break thanks to tries from full back Ollie Hassell-Collins, Wellington College second row Josh Basham, and Sedbergh number 8 Sam Moore, who was captaining the side, his schoolmate Cameron Redpath adding two conversions.
South Africa scored two quick tries early in the second half through Muller du Plessis and Henco Martins, with Oamani Kota slotting a penalty to bring the scores down to 19-15 and putting England under real pressure.
England responded well though, scoring through Warwick captain Nick Rigby with another shortly after Redpath’s conversion through blindside flanker Tom Willis.
South Africa responded again though, once more through du Plessis, to narrow the gap back down again to 31-22, however England turned on the afterburners, with Cadan Murley, the Bishop Wordsworth’s captain, crossing for his fourth try of the tour, before Wellington College’s Sam Spink and Warwick’s Nick David added even more gloss to take things out to 52-22 with the benefit of Kirkham Grammar School’s Kieran Wilkinson’s conversions.
Speaking after the game to www.englandrugby.com England Coach Russell Earnshaw said:
“I just think we played with real ambition and intent. We could have done without half-time, they came out after the break and scored 15 points in 10 minutes but the lads showed great resilience to get through that spell and I thought it was a great performance in the end. They just played like they trained and it’s pretty exciting when it transfers onto the pitch.”
“This tour is about them learning, making connections on and off the pitch and improving their skillset. Putting 50 points on South Africa in South Africa is outstanding and the players should be very proud of themselves.”
“We showed creativity and came up with solutions to the different problems South Africa were presenting. There was plenty of resilience out there also, it was a brilliant performance.”
“We have seven lads who are Under 17 so they will be with us next year and they will carry the mantel on. I’m just excited for them.”
England U18 52-22 South Africa Schools
England U18 XV:
15 Ollie Hassell-Collins (London Irish &St Paul’s)
14 Arron Reed (Sale Sharks & Kirkham GS)
13 Cadan Murley (Harlequins & Bishop Wordsworth’s)
12 Fraser Dingwall (Northampton Saints & Bedford)
11 Tom Seabrook (Gloucester & Dean Close)
10 Cameron Redpath (Sale Sharks & Sedbergh)
9 Will Porter (Wasps & Merchant Taylors’)
1 Tom Rowland (Bristol & Bristol GS)
2 Will Capon (Bristol & Bristol GS)
3 Joe Heyes (Leicester Tigers & Wyggeston and QEI College)
4 Josh Basham (London Irish & Wellington College)
5 James Scott (Worcester Warriors & Malvern College)
6 Tom Willis (Wasps & Henley College)
7 Aaron Hinkley (Gloucester & St Peter’s)
8 Sam Moore (Sale Sharks & Sedbergh, captain).
Replacements: 16 Beck Cutting (Worcester Warriors & Bromsgrove), 17 George Head (Harlequins & Tonbridge), 18 Nick Rigby (Worcester Warriors & Warwick), 19 Alex Coles (Northampton Saints & The Perse), 20 Ollie Fox (Yorkshire Carnegie & New College Pontefract) 21 Kieran Wilkinson (Sale Sharks & Kirkham GS), 22 Sam Spink (Wasps & Wellington College), 23 Nick David (Worcester Warriors & Warwick), 24 Tom de Glanville (Bath & Beechen Cliff)
Not in matchday squad: Richard Capstick (Exeter Chiefs & Exeter College), Joe Tunney (Wasps & Dr Challoners)
U19 International Series Fixtures & Results:
Friday 11th August: Paul Roos Gymnasium, Stellenbosch
13:15 France 8-24 England
15:00 SA Schools 28-30 Wales
Tuesday 15th August: Paarl Gymnasium, Paarl
13:15 England 12-14 Wales
15:00 SA Schools 8-13 France
Saturday 19th August: City Park, Athlone
11:15 France 31-19 Wales
13:00 SA Schools 22-52 England
