Saxons v SA(A) 2nd Test - 17th June (Friday Night)

The England Saxons:

15 Mike Haley
14 Semesa Rokoduguni
13 Nick Tompkins (Saracens)
12 Oliver Devoto
11 Christian Wade
10 Danny Cipriani
9 Dan Robson

1 Alec Hepburn (Exeter)
2 Tommy Taylor
3 Kieran Brookes
4 Dave Attwood (c)
5 Charlie Ewels
6 Dave Ewers
7 Matthew Kvesic
8 Donovan Armand.

Replacements: 16 George McGuigan, 17 Ross Harrison, 18 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 19 Mitch Lees, 20 Sam Jones, 21 Michael Young, 22 Sam Hill (Exeter), 23 Sam James.

England have been under the cosh for the whole opening 10 minutes.

SA missed penalties and have just missed a conversion, so we are fortunate to be only 5-0 down.

Robson did make one break well into the SA half but no-one went with him and the counter attack took the boks back up to our try line. We lost a lineout and they scored.

In an eventful opening, our prop Hepburn had a kick charged down.

Is it really impossible to get a neutral referee? Taken without the ball going for the line yet no yellow card...

Commentators just said full back Mike Haley dislocated his shoulder.

I think it's fair to predict that decisions aren't likely to go our way for the rest of the match either.

The best thing to say for England so far is that we are only 5-0 behind, after having so little possession and field position.

Scrum penalty to England, and Cipriani gets us on the board. 5-3.

We fumbled the restart, and someone palyed it in an offside position. Boks A turned down going at goal and tried a lineout move. Kvesic breakdown steal saved our bacon momentarily.

That'sout of the blue.

Wade took the ball in open play and ran it back, eventually forcing the Bok last man to field his grubber into touch.

From the resulting lineout,we got a good maul going and Taylor scored a try. No extras for Cipriani but we now lead 5-8

On the stroke of half-time, South Africa put together a good move which ends in a try near the posts.

We go in 12-8 down.

Saxons have been incredibly inaccurate and should be further behind. Spent a long time without the ball. Still in the game though and look dangerous on the break. Such a shame about Haley.

SA strike early and we are 19-8 down. That's a costly few minutes either side of half time.

England not come out of the shed after the oranges.

Disaster. Pass to Wade is behind him and SA kick ahead to score another try.

26-8

This game looks lost but these players will need to put in a good finish to show they are worth another look.

We get a quick reply through another maul, and a second try for Taylor.

26-15

And it gets worse. They have been terrible and SA far more precise.

Bit of luck went our way there. SA scored but the linesman had ruled a player in touch before he passed. He wasn't.

The TMO pointed out it was a bad call, and the ref said the try might stand. Attwood complained, pointing out the whistle had gone. Ref agreed, and we got our lineout. And the passage ends in another mauling try.

It's 26-22

There's over 20 minutes left.

Chances and turnovers for both sides.

We had another good attacking lineout but Taylor stopped his throw to complain and he gave away a freekick.

Lots of possession for England but well held out by SA, and driven back down the field.

Michael Young is on....

Has Astwood got vaseline on his hands?!

We don't look like we have a way to break the SA defensive line except through an attacking maul.

10 minutes to go.

Ref told us to use it during a maul. We didn't believe him, and so we lost it.

Wade takes a pass and squeezes in at the corner. Back in the lead!

Cipriani converst from out wide. 26-29 to the Saxons and 4 minutes left.

Silly by England. We had them pinned deep but gave away a ruck penalty.

We held on to win 26-29.

That was quite a game. Thought we'd thrown it away after South Africa scored three quick tries but we pulled ourselves together.

How have we won that?!?

Scrappy performance by England today but I was very impressed by Wade. Defensively very solid against a muscular South Africa A, got stuck in to rucks, helped to force at least one turnover, scored a try and should have had another (or a penalty try).

I've been critical in the past but if he can keep that up he will deserve a shot in the senior side if an opportunity arises.

South Africa threw that away, really, by trying to play loose when they had no need to do so.

That disallowed try was a big turning point because we went on to score from that position.

Poorfour wrote:Scrappy performance by England today but I was very impressed by Wade. Defensively very solid against a muscular South Africa A, got stuck in to rucks, helped to force at least one turnover, scored a try and should have had another (or a penalty try).

I've been critical in the past but if he can keep that up he will deserve a shot in the senior side if an opportunity arises.

Yup defended v well, no contest against him in the air which will surely be another question but again easily the most threatening back. The fact it wasn't a pen try or yellow is the reason we now have neutral refs!

Wade was busy, and did well with the opportunities he had. If anything, England tried too hard to get the ball to him, and gave away position and points when passes went astray.

When we were under the cosh early on, Roko had some nice carries out of trouble but was otherwise quiet.

Cipriani had a good game.

Ultimately, our forwards did the job with the maul. I thought Kvesic has scored from a maul but actually SA had messy possession near their line, and he pilfered it and went over for his try.

Good to hear we won.

Good to hear about Wade.

Ok I'm going to ask it.....did Kvesic make the impression he needed to, knowing he's against Clifford, Harrison, Haskell etc....

And was there any other players who you thought...yeah Jones will have seen something in him!?

GeordieFalcon wrote:...Ok I'm going to ask it.....did Kvesic make the impression he needed to, knowing he's against Clifford, Harrison, Haskell etc....

He made one crucial turnover (may have got others) but also got penalized. He took his try well.

We had to make a ridiculous number of tackles during the match, and I think all the forwards will have high counts.

Well that was a complete turnaround after they had seemingly lost it.

I really enjoyed that even though at times we played like the strangers they reasonably are, often trying to play to much and forcing passes.

It was good to see the players work out the way to win and come together as a side. There will be sore bodies on both sides and a few bevvies should be downed by way of compensation.

I was a little disappointed by Robson (did he take an early knock?) as he struggled to find the pass away from the ruck. It will be interesting to see how he and Cipriani develop their 9/10 relationship.

There will be couple of sore shoulders with both Haley and Rokoduguni leaving the field through injury, however ultimately it was the forwards who won it!

Finally I wonder if any of this squad will be called up to go across to Oz for game 3 - of course Wade will.......

Thought Kvesic was unlucky not to make more turnovers, there were a couple of occasions when the Saffa players were allowed to hold onto the ball on the floor for a ridiculously long time. He lloks streetwise at the breakdown.

Kvesic was pretty good at the breakdown and carried better. Took his try well, too. I still don't think he did enough to displace the existing senior options, though.

Ewers looked industrious without really standing out

Kvesic slipped off an early tackle incorrectly had a steal penalised leading to a SA try as he wasn' the tackler, pick of back rows for me.

Rugby Fan wrote:Bit of luck went our way there. SA scored but the linesman had ruled a player in touch before he passed. He wasn't.

The TMO pointed out it was a bad call, and the ref said the try might stand. Attwood complained, pointing out the whistle had gone. Ref agreed, and we got our lineout. And the passage ends in another mauling try.

It's 26-22

Evened out the obvious forward pass at the start of the break down field that led to their first try ...

Completely missed this.

South African report says centre Lukhanyo Am was red carded for foul play in the build-up to Wade's try in the final minutes.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/sport/rugby/2016/06/17/South-Africa-A-slump-to-another-defeat-to-visiting-England-Saxons

Haven't seen that mentioned anywhere else, and didn't notice anything at the time.

I missed that too ...

Totally failed to notice that myself. The commentary must have missed it.

trebellbobaggins wrote:Totally failed to notice that myself.  The commentary must have missed it.

Well surprise, surprise.

I have rarely heard such bias commentary as that which I heard in the last couple of games.

I didn't realise, they have 4 pairs of commentators each commentating in a different language