England U18s defeat Argentina in style

England 48 Argentina 20

England Under 18s concluded their development tour of Argentina in style on Sunday evening with an impressive 48-20 defeat of Argentina.

The latest win for the England young guns handed the Under 18s side a clean sweep of wins this season which also included a Grand Slam in the Six Nations Festival as well as victories over Tucuman, Buenos Aires, Mendoza and Uruguay.

England Under 18s Coach John Fletcher said: “I’m delighted with the performance and the result on Sunday. To score eight tries in a test match speaks volumes for the quality of this squad.

“We have proved we are capable of scoring tries from deep positions with good ball carrying skills, and we have players who can make good decisions on the ball as well as boast having pace throughout the team.

“Myself and Martin Haag’s objectives for this tour were to win games by performing well and scoring as many tries as we possibly could and we have scored over 50 tries in five games. I am delighted with how the players have responded to me and Martin”

England Under 18s tour captain Alex Gray added: “We have had a fantastic trip to Argentina which was rounded off with a good victory over the Pumitas. The rugby in Argentina has been very physical and we have all learnt a lot from our experiences”.

Newcastle No. 8 Gray was one of six try scorers, with Leicester wing Will Hurrell claiming a hat-trick of tries. Bath’s James Currie, London Irish duo Jamie Gibson and Marcus Watson and Newcastle’s Tom Catterick also touched down.

Clearly unfazed by the prospect of an international test match, the tourists established a very comfortable lead for themselves early on going 19-0 up in the first nine minutes.

Bath prop Currie was the first to give England the lead after a well worked line-out, catch and drive, before London Irish lock Gibson charged down an Argentinean clearance kick to score. Gloucester centre Freddie Burns converted both scores.

Leicester wing Hurrell then added the first of his three tries straight from the restart. Some strong runs from Jacob Rowan and James Gaskell saw the ball offloaded to skipper Gray. Gray then darted 40 metres upfield to make vital space for the England backs who set-up Hurrell for the well worked try.

Argentina pulled a penalty back on 16 minutes, but England responded immediately with a well struck high kick that saw Andy Forsyth collect. Gray then took the ball on, linking in with Rowan and Jordi Pasqualin who fed the ball to Watson. The Exiles wing then beat two defenders to score in the right corner.

The hosts still remained in the game though and when England were caught napping they intercepted a pass to score a late try in the first half, making the score at half-time 24-8.

England, however, restarted in fine form and when Burns made a good break fly-half Rory Clegg helped set-up Hurrell for his brace shortly followed by another good line-out catch and drive which saw Gray drive through the middle of a driving maul to score.

Argentina claimed their second try of the evening after collecting a loose ball from the line-out, but Catterick soon eased England into a 41-15 lead with Sam Harrison and Clegg passing to Catterick who found space to score in the corner.

England then stretch their lead to 48-15 after a line-out pass saw Clegg and Catterick find centre Owen Farrell. The Saracen back then showed his excellent turn of speed to see off the Puma’s defenders to set-up Hurrell for his hat-trick. Clegg converted.

Argentina refused to give up though and finished strongly to score their third try, making the final score 48-20.

England Under 18s

Replacements:

England

England v Tucuaman Under 18s, July 19th, Los Tos Tarcos, kick-off 8pm BST WON 40-24

England v Buenos Aires Under 18s, July 23rd, 11pm BST WON 39-19

England v Mendoza Under 18s, July 27th, WON 107 – 3

England v Uruguay, July 30th, Hindu Club, KO 3pm WON 94-7