England u18's vs. France u18's

England 18 France 16

Photo: Getty Images
England Under 18 kick-started their season with a hard-fought 18-16 win, coming from behind against a strong French side. Tries from Callum Braley and Anthony Watson secured the victory, while two penalties from Billy Burns kept the scoreboard ticking over.

France did have the chance to draw the match, but scrum half Paul Abadie’s conversion with the last kick of the game sailed wide.

England started the brighter of the two sides and really should have taken a fourth minute lead after a strong break from Anthony Watson set up Josh Watkins to dive over, but Watson’s pass to the Worcester wing was adjudged forward by the referee.

Two minutes later and England were punished. French centre Brandon Fajardo barged his way through several challenges to go over for the first try of the game, scrum half Baptiste Serin missed the conversion.


Photo: Getty Images
Watkins’ pace was causing France all kinds of problems and with ten minutes played the 17-year-old again broke free before being tackled into touch just short of the try-line.

French prop Yousef Amrouni was sent to the bin on the twenty minute mark, freeing up the chance for Gloucester No. 10 Billy Burns to get England on the board with a penalty, which he duly did.

Just a minute later and England again made the extra man count, Watson displayed his athleticism and pace to shrug off two French tackles before deftly offloading to scrum half Callum Braley who dived over, Burns converted.

A French penalty just before the break reduced the deficit to two points, but there was still time for England centre Tom Stephenson to again exploit gaps in the French defence, but the Northampton man ran out of steam just short of the line and France cleared.

Neither side created any clear-cut opportunities in the opening exchanges of the second half, but it was England who got the first points on the board through Burns who kicked his second penalty of the afternoon. France hit back with one of their own shortly afterwards to make the score 13-11 with 20 left to play.


Photo: Getty Images
Heading into the final ten the game was for the taking, but with England camped in the French 22, the ball fell to replacement fly half Sam Olver who kicked over the French defence for Watson to pick up and score a deserved try. The conversion was missed, giving England a seven point 18-11 lead.

With just a converted try good enough for France, they really upped the ante and scored through full back Nicolas Metge in the final play of the game, but the conversion went just wide, bringing the game to a close and England U18 their first win of the new season.

Head Coach John Fletcher said: “It was a tight game, we felt that we probably did enough to score a couple more tries, but we’re delighted to get the win. The game lacked a bit of fluidity in the second half and we seemed to get a bit nervous at time, but it’s our first competitive match together and this win will breed confidence.

“Overall I felt that we were the better side, first half performance was good, and France had a lot of possession in the second half. We’ve got a hard working, humble group, we’ve had some good warm up games and learnt some valuable lessons – as you do at this age grade – and they’ve come through well to get the win today.”

England points: Braley 1T Watson 1T; Burns 2P 1C

I've heard Leicester fans talk about Javiah Pohe, who looks like a big unit.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

I've heard Leicester fans talk about Javiah Pohe, who looks like a big unit.

From what I've seen he's built like Manu and plays like Allen. Could be a handy IC in a year or two. Catchpole is a decent utility back but I'm a tad suprised he's in there when El Mahdi is the outside back making the big impression in the Tigers academy (pace and step are awesome). Good to see Thacker in there he's appeared in the LV Cup this season and the two props on the bench I don't know much about.

Cumbrian wrote:

To be honest, I wouldn’t get too attached to Scott Wilson, he was born in Scotland and played most of his youth rugby in the Border’s league, qualifies through his Mam. With the SRFU move to recruit more foreign born Scots/ Scots playing abroad, I’d be amazed if they missed him.