Saxons teach Eagles harsh lessons

The England Saxons taught the United States Eagles some harsh lessons on Saturday in their opening match of the 2011 Churchill Cup.

The Eagles ended up on the rough end of an 87-8 scoreline.

The Unites States started mostly domestic players to give them experience against a Saxons team that was fully professional.

Head coach Eddie O'Sullivan tried some experimental combinations and gave domestic players an opportunity to play at a very high level.

The Eagles were starved of possession by the Saxons and the English side was able to capitalize on turnovers, scoring seven tries from turnover ball.

The US struck first after solid phase play resulted in a penalty which outside centre, Tai Enosa, converted with ease in the third minute. England answered back quickly through the very lethal Miles Benjamin, who ended up scoring a hat-trick in the encounter.

The first 20 minutes would see the Saxons run rampant and the Eagles were up against it to the tune of 33-3 at half-time.

"The game got away from us early on and we were struggling early. On some occasions we held onto the ball and did some good things," said O'Sullivan.

"It was a very big ask of our team to go against the fully professional England Saxons side and a lot of our problems were of our own making."

The coach continued to say that mistakes and turnovers were compounded by the Saxons' speedy backs and defensive lapses by the Eagles.

The scrums were also an issue for the Eagles and the Saxons were able to drive the American forwards back, compromising the USA's attacking platform when awarded scrums.

Even under immense Saxons pressure and a unfavourable score line, the Eagles kept fighting as Scott LaValla pushed over for a try in the 78th minute after the Unites States forwards built on strong phase play to get the Saxons back pedaling.

Colin Hawley and John van der Giessen played well for the Eagles and were very gritty in their defence. Van der Giessen was also very good in the line-outs and was able to provide a threat in the air to that set piece. Roland Suniula did a good job at flyhalf off the bench and got the Eagles moving forward late in the game.

Tonga is up next for the Eagles, which is a full test match and a ranking test so fans can expect to see a very different Eagles team on Wednesday as the talents of several seasoned internationals will be called on.

Scorers

For England Saxons
Tries: Benjamin 3, Brown 2, Young, Johnson, Twelvetrees, Trinder, Sharples, Kitchener, Hodgson
Cons: Clegg 11

For the United States:
Try: Lavalla
Pen: Enosa

Teams:

England Saxons: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Henry Trinder, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Miles Benjamin, 10 Rory Clegg, 9 Micky Young, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Tom Johnson, 6 James Gaskell, 5 Dave Attwood, 4 Mouritz Botha, 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Matt Mullan.
Replacements: 16 David Paice, 17 Kieran Brookes, 18 Graham Kitchener, 19 Jamie Gibson, 20 Paul Hodgson, 21 Alex Goode, 22 Charlie Sharples.

United States Eagles: 15 Mike Palefau, 14 Mile Pulu, 13 Tai Enosa, 12 Junior Sifa, 11 Colin Hawley, 10 Troy Hall, 9 Mike Petri (captain), 8 JJ Gagiano, 7 Danny LaPrevotte, 6 Pat Danahy, 5 Scott LaValla, 4 John van der Giessen, 3 Will Johnson, 2 Phil Thiel, 1 Eric Fry.
Replacements: 16 Chris Biller, 17 Shawn Pittman, 18 Louis Stanfill, 19 Inaki Basauri, 20 Tim Usasz, 21 Roland Suniula, 22 Andrew Suniula.

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)