‘England XV moulded as a team’ – Joe Marchant

England XV centre Joe Marchant feels the whole squad should be proud of how they came together as they won the Quilter Cup by beating the Barbarians.

Jim Mallinder’s side ran in six tries in a thrilling 51-43 victory at Twickenham, in a team that had never played together before.

Asked about what it was like playing a Barbarians team full of international players, Harlequin Marchant told England Rugby: “It was fast, they really took to us.

“They had such big boys and we knew we had to take them down and try and keep the ball as much as we could.

“We came together at the start of the week when some of us didn’t know each other and we just moulded together and it was a really good performance.”

Although he did not get on the scoresheet, Marchant was involved in the build-up for a number of scores in an impressive run out at the home of English rugby.

The former England U20 international believes that the whole team improved as the game went on.

“At the end of the first half things just seem to have clicked and we knew what people were doing and we wanted to take that on second half,” added the 22-year-old.

“We didn’t get that at the start of the second half but we really came on strong at the end of the game.

“I loved it today, it was an amazing experience. It was great playing alongside these boys and here at Twickenham too.”