Saxons conquer Sicily
England Saxons recorded a 38-15 victory over Italy A in Sicily on Saturday, running in five tries to win comfortably for the second weekend in succession.
England Saxons recorded a 38-15 victory over Italy A in Sicily on Saturday, running in five tries to win comfortably for the second weekend in succession.
With Shane Geraghty promoted to the senior squad for Sunday's Six Nations clash with the Italians in Rome, Harlequins fly-half Adrian Jarvis stepped into the breach impressively and claimed 13 points.
England took a narrow 10-8 half-time lead thanks to a penalty from Jarvis, who then added the conversion after Quins team-mate Tom Guest picked up from the back of a scrum to charge over on the blind side.
Paulo Buso had kicked the Italians into an early lead and a late try from number eight Jacobus Erasmus meant they were very much in touch at the interval.
The Saxons took control of the match in the second half and within five minutes Jarvis sprayed the ball out wide for the unmarked Delon Armitage to score.
Replacement scrum-half Danny Care, on for Lee Dickson, quickly created two tries after his 51st-minute introduction, with Tom Biggs and Nick Kennedy the beneficiaries.
Centre Alex Crockett added a fourth try, with Jarvis again successful with the kick to make it a perfect kicking display.
Alessandro Chillon scored a late consolation try for the game Italians but they ended the contest well beaten, just as Ireland A had at the hands of Steve Bates' side a week ago.
“I was very pleased with the way the whole team performed, especially bearing in mind that the side showed a number of changes to the line-up that beat Ireland in our opening game and had only a brief period to get to know each other,” said Bates.
“Every one of them can be very proud of their performance. We dominated the first half, but Italy were still very much in contention at the break.
“But in the second half the players did exactly what was asked of them and that response enabled us to gain control with four tries.”
The scorers:
For Italy A:
Try: Erasmus, Chillon
Con: Rodriguez
Pen: Buso
For England Saxons:
Tries: Guest, Armitage, Biggs, Kennedy, Crockett
Cons: Jarvis 5
Pen: Jarvis
Italy A: 15 Riccardo Pavan (Overmach Cariparma), 14 Ludovico Nitoglia (Cammi Calvisano), 13 Gilberto Pavan (Overmach Cariparma), 12 Alessio Galante (Rolly Gran Parma), 11 Michele Sepe (Capitolina), 10 Paolo Buso (Cammi Calvisano), 9 Giulio Toniolatti (AlmavivA Ur Capitolina), 8 Jacobus Erasmus (Montepaschi Viadana), 7 Robert Barbieri (Benetton Treviso), 6 Silvio Orlando (Benetton Treviso), 5 Antonio Pavanello (Benetton Treviso), 4 Gonzalo Padro (Carrera Petrarca Padova), 3 Lorenzo Cittadini (Cammi Calvisano), 2 Luigi Ferraro (Montepaschi Viadana), 1 Matias Aguero (Saracens).
Replacements: 16 Matteo Pietrosanti (Capitolina), 17 Franco Sbaraglini (Benetton Treviso), 18 Mantvydas Tveraga (Overmach Cariparma), 19 Paul Derbyshire (Rolly Gran Parma), 20 Fabio Semenzato (Benetton Treviso), 21 Luciano Rodriguez (Orved San Donà ), 22 Alessandro Chillon (Overmach Cariparma)
England Saxons: 15 Nick Abendanon (Bath), 14 Tom Biggs (Leeds Carnegie), 13 Delon Armitage (London Irish), 12 Alex Crockett (Bath), 11 John Rudd (Newcastle Falcons), 10 Adrian Jarvis (Harlequins), 9 Lee Dickson (Newcastle Falcons), 8 Tom Guest (Harlequins), 7 Ben Woods (Newcastle Falcons), 6 Phil Dowson (Newcastle Falcons, captain), 5 Nick Kennedy (London Irish), 4 Peter Short (Bath), 3 Jason Hobson (Bristol), 2 David Paice (London Irish),1 Alex Clarke (Bristol).
Replacements: 16 Andrew Long (Newcastle Falcons), 17 Jon Golding (Newcastle Falcons), 18 Andrew Springgay (Bayonne), 19 Will Skinner (Harlequins), 20 Danny Care (Harlequins), 21 Mike Brown (Harlequins), 22 Topsy Ojo (London Irish).
Referee: Cyril Lafon (France)