Kitchener success in Saxons try romp

Worcester lock Graham Kitchener made his full debut and Tom Wood also impressed as England Saxons thumped Russia 49-17 in the Churchill Cup in the USA on Wednesday evening.

The Saxons scored three tries in the first 15 minutes but Russia rallied, a Vasily Artemiev try ensuring they trailed only 28-14 at half-time.

The multiple changes led to the game becoming more scrappy after the break but England added three more tries to finish with seven as Saull, Abendanon, Narraway, Varndell (2), Young and Myler all crossed the whitewash.

England Saxons Head Coach Stuart Lancaster said: “I'm really pleased with that result. We had one or two errors which let Russia into the match but on the whole it was a good performance under tough conditions.

“You can't fault Russia's effort, they are a tough side and they've done well to come off the back of playing USA last weekend. We have to do the same and backup today's performance against the hosts on Sunday and that begins with getting our recovery right.”

England: 15 Nick Abendanon (Bath Rugby), 14 James Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester Rugby), 13 Jon Clarke (Northampton Saints), 12 Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers),11 Tom Varndell (London Wasps),10 Stephen Myler (Northampton Saints), 9 Micky Young (Newcastle Falcons),1 Nick Wood (Gloucester Rugby), 2 Rob Vickers (Newcastle Falcons), 3 Duncan Bell (Bath Rugby),4 Graham Kitchener (Worcester Warriors), 5 George Skivington (Captain, London Wasps), 6 Tom Wood (Worcester Warriors), 7 Andy Saull (Saracens),8 Luke Narraway (Gloucester Rugby)

Replacements: 16 Andy Titterrell (Leeds Carnegie), 17 Alex Corbiserio (London Irish), 18 Nathan Catt (Bath Rugby),19 Kearnan Myall (Leeds Carnegie), 20, Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints), 21 Brad Barritt (Saracens), 22 Alex Goode (Saracens)
 

The Saxons' next game is against the United States on Sunday, June 13.


 


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