England v Australian Junior World Cup Semi Final: Australia 28 England 16

Junior rugby


England v Australian Junior World Cup Semi Final: Australia 28 England 16



What the senior Australian coach Robbie Deans would give for a scrum as dominant over England as this Aussie pack was in the early exchanges of this game. In the 1st minuet the England pack was shunted up and back with some venom. With every touch of the ball for England the Aussies were on them and pressuring them. The England pack recovered from the shock of the initial dominance and started to gain some parity. Sustained pressure from England and some great work in the rucks from forwards such as Jamie George gave England good clean ball with 2 great passes including one from Forsyth put the ball wide into the hands of winger Sam Smith who cruised over in the corner for a well worked try. Australia made a comeback almost instantly and started to put the ball through the hands and a great off load from 12 Coleman put the ball into the hands of winger Toua who smashed over for a powerful try.

England’s lineout unlike its scrum was working brilliantly Calum Green stole a good ball from the Australia lineout only for the Ref to run a blocking line bought play back from a scrum. This bought on more pressure by Australia but England got the ball away and the ensuing breakdown resulted in an infringement from Australia which Tom Homer converted. Australia forwards then proceeded to carry out some England like pick and goes but this resulted in quick ball which went wide for the full back Luke Morahan to cut back and score.

England scrambling defence was saving them from a mauling all through the 1st half but as half time came the game was starting to fall away from England as Australia relentlessly attacked their line. A succession of dangerous scrums 10 meters out and England were only able to kick it out to the 22. England faced another scrum and again pressure from Australia saw Knight the tighthead for England penalised for boring in. At half time England trail 20 points to 8.

The second half started of with England penalised taking the man out in the air at the kick off and the signs looked ominous. Service was resumed with Australia’s powering at the England line. England seemed to settle a little and the tight exchanges were just that very tight. England’s smaller forwards were starting to make inroads in and around the fringes and started to pressure the Australian backs but soon the 13 Kimami Sitauti a power house centre with a hammer like hand off made a great run powering run through the English defence. The result was a further encampment in the English 22 a series of plays and scrums which Australia dominated. Tensions started to rise with an injury to the England replacement 8 Will Welsh coming off and making some comments as he went off for treatment about what he would do to his counterpart on his return.



The half continued with lots of attacking play from Australia yet England to their credit defended stoically as Australia threw everything at them. The then gained some composure and put the ball through some great phases of play which came to an end with Rory Cleggs replacement at fly half Freddie chipping a kick beautifully over the Australian defence. England came so close to scoring but great covering defence buy the Australian full back stopped a certain try.

Australia made a great play which they coughed up with a forward pass. England then found some scrum dominance following injury and started to rattle the Australians, however this didn’t last and again Sitauti powered his way through some desperate defence to score a great individual try. Jonny May managed to grab a little bit of solice with try at the end with his shorts round his ankles and his backside on full view, as the Australians defence refused to give up. The final score Australia 28 England 16. If the Australian props on show here today continue to develop as they have the poor front row situation facing Australia may well be over in the not too distant future, this was a performance built on a dominant tight 5, ok they were shaky in the lineout but as a unit they were a force. Seeing a team in gold shunt back an England pack as these guys did was a scary sight.