England Counties Under 20s set for Georgia challenge
By KBM
May 23 2014
An England Counties Under 20s XV won that match 36-10 but head coach Bob Hood is expecting a response from Georgia at Cambridge (2pm kick-off). “It’s going to be hard in terms of physicality. We said from our visit to Tblisi last year that Georgia are a warrior nation. They are very proud and very physical. “They have developed their game in terms of wide-out strength and we know that they have done quite a bit of analysis on us. “They will be looking to counter our ability to get the ball wide and get tempo into our game so we will be trying to put a few things into place that will counter their counter.” The England Counties Under 20 squad assembled in Cambridge last Sunday and Hood has been delighted with the way they have come together in a short space of time. “They have gelled together very quickly as a group and you would not have thought when they took the field on Wednesday that they had been together for only a couple of days,” Hood said. “They have responded superbly to everything we have challenged them with and the good thing about the match at Shelford was that we were able to get all our replacements on to give the entire squad some game time.” Both the England Counties and the Georgia squads joined forces on Thursday to run coaching sessions for 150 local primary school children as part of an outreach programme which was enjoyed by all. “It was a fantastic day. We have more than 150 primary school children who enjoyed the day. They came away with big smiles on their faces and the players enjoyed signing autographs for them,” Hood said. “Both sides were great ambassadors for their countries.” For tomorrow’s match England Counties Under 20s have called up full-back Ollie Walker who was unavailable for the midweek fixture because of injury. There are five more changes to the side that took the field at Shelford with hooker Finlay Sinclair, flanker Seb Nagle-Taylor, number eight Guy Van Dan Vries, centre Ali Heard and and scrum-half Jack Daly also called up. England Counties Under 20s 15 Ollie Walker (Percy Park and Northumberland) 14 Jack Rossiter (Richmond and Berkshire) 13 Sam Hanks (Cinderford and Gloucestershire) 12 Ali Heard (Hull and Yorkshire) 11 Kwaku Asiedu (Canterbury and Kent) 10 Ben Penfold (Cambridge and East Midlands) 9 Jack Daly (Cambridge and East Midlands) 1 Jamal Ford-Robinson (Cambridge and East Midlands) 2 Finlay Sinclair (Cinderford and Gloucestershire) 3 Jack Culverhouse (Hertford and Hertfordshire) 4 Stuart Nel (Beverley and Yorkshire) 5 Luke Frixou (Derby and NLD) 6 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Blackheath and Kent) 7 Jack Alcock (Darlington Mowden Park and Yorkshire) 8 Guy Van Dan Vries (Darlington Mowden Park and Yorkshire – captain) Replacements Ali Wade (Camberley and Surrey) Tom Larder (Darlington Mowden Park and Durham) Sam White (Tynedale and Northumberland) Josh Redfern (Sheffield Tigers and Yorkshire) Sam Harry(Cambridge and Eastern Counties) William Seville (Richmond and Surrey) Rhodri Adamson (Newcastle University and Northumberland) Bertie Hopkin (Guildford and Surrey) Cameron Hudson (Beverley and Yorkshire) Ryan Redman (Medway and Kent) |
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England Counties Under 20s suffered an agonising defeat against a well-organised Georgia side at Cambridge’s Volac Park today.
England appeared to have snatched victory when replacement scrum-half Rhodri Adamson landed a touchline conversion after wing Jack Rossiter had levelled the scores at 20-20 with a late try.
But there was still time for England to concede a penalty for handling in a ruck which gave Georgia full-back Giorgi Babunashvili the chance to kick the penalty that won an entertaining contest.
The defeat for the Under 20s followed two one point reverses for the England Counties senior side against France Federale and Ireland Club XV earlier in the season.
England had expected a backlash from Georgia after they beat them 36-10 in a midweek match at Shelford and they made life difficult for themselves on occasions by running into Georgia’s defensive wall.
Georgia’s centres Devi Devsurashvili and Temuri Iremadze caused problems throughout but it was left wing Davit Gulitashvili who scored the opening try after a sustained attack which fly-half Jintchvelashvili converted.
England hit back just before the half hour when openside flanker Jack Alcock clattered through for an unconverted try, using Rossiter as his decoy, but Jintchvelashvili landed a penalty just before the break to give Georgia a 10-5 lead at half-time.
Another Jintchvelashvili penalty seven minutes into the second half stetcched Georgia’s lead but England reduced it to a point when left wing Kwaku Asiedu ran back a poor clearance kick and created space for tighthead prop Jack Culverhouse to step over for the try which Ben Penfold, one of four Cambridge players in the side, improved.
But Culverhouse was sent off seven mi8nutes later along with Georgia’s loosehead prop Mataradze Tornike for punching during a flare-up.
England took the lead for the first time after 73 minutes when Adamson struck a penalty but Georgia were resilient and they responded with a sustained attack that led to Babunashvili dotting down from close range for a try that he also improved.
Rossiter’s try, after patient approach work had created the overlap for the wing, and Adamson’s superb conversion appeared to have clinched victory but Georgia’s resistance had not been broken and they snatched a win that was celebrated joyously by their small band of supporters when Babunashvili landed his late penalty.
England Counties Under 20s
15 Ollie Walker (Percy Park and Northumberland)
14 Jack Rossiter (Richmond and Berkshire)
13 Sam Hanks (Cinderford and Gloucestershire)
12 Ali Heard (Hull and Yorkshire)
11 Kwaku Asiedu (Canterbury and Kent)
10 Ben Penfold (Cambridge and East Midlands)
9 Jack Daly (Cambridge and East Midlands)
1 Jamal Ford-Robinson (Cambridge and East Midlands)
2 Finlay Sinclair (Cinderford and Gloucestershire)
3 Jack Culverhouse (Hertford and Hertfordshire)
4 Stuart Nel (Beverley and Yorkshire)
5 Luke Frixou (Derby and NLD)
6 Seb Nagle-Taylor (Blackheath and Kent)
7 Jack Alcock (Darlington Mowden Park and Yorkshire)
8 Guy Van Dan Vries (Darlington Mowden Park and Yorkshire, captain)
Replacements used:
Tom Larder (Darlington Mowden Park and Durham), Sam White (Tynedale and Northumberland), Josh Redfern (Sheffield Tigers and Yorkshire), Sam Harry (Cambridge and Eastern Counties), William Seville (Richmond and Surrey), Rhodri Adamson (Winchester, Newcastle University and Northumberland), Bertie Hopkin (Guildford and Surrey), Cameron Hudson (Beverley and Yorkshire), Ryan Redman (Medway and Kent).