England cruise to win over Canada at Twickenham

England cruised to a 70-14 win over Canada at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon. The home side outscored their guests by ten tries to two as the Canadians struggled to deal with the strength of the English pack particularly at the lineout.

A penalty conceded just seconds after kickoff gave England an attacking lineout. Harry Wells was the target, then then pack walked over for Jamie Blamire to score the easiest of tries. Marcus Smith was spot on with the conversion.

When they gained possession Canada put their hosts on the back foot. They twice turned down points to take the set piece, and a penalty went their way from a scrum. Ross Braude took a quick tap and England’s defense were unprepared with the scrumhalf slipping under the tackle of captain Lewis Ludlow to score.

The points were immediately handed back to England. Conor Keys couldn’t quite handle the restart and England chose the corner instead of the sticks. This time the maul was collapsed and the referee awarded a penalty try, at the same time sending Reegan O’Gorman to the sidelines for a 10-minute break.

Moments later England were in again. Adam Radwan had more than enough pace to exploit a gap on the outside and sped around the corner for another seven points. Another try went to Joe Cokanasiga on the right side after Ellis Genge had punched through the middle.

The power of Cokanasiga was evident three minutes later as he went straight through Peter Nelson to grab a double. Lewis Ludlow would then find himself in trouble, a clumsy attempt to step through a ruck seeing his knee connect with Jake Ilnicki’s face and earning the England captain a yellow card.

Canada used the advantage to create an overlap out wide, with the miss-out pass from Ben LeSage finding former Arrows teammate Kainoa Lloyd in just enough space to finish in the right corner. England went back to their maul, however, with Blamire getting his second try before the halftime whistle to make it 42-12 to the home side.

Genge would get a score for himself early in the second half. Danny Kelly made inroads on a set play from a lineout and then the big Leicester prop smashed his way straight through the middle for England’s seventh try, converted by Smith.

The eighth try came shortly after. England went through the phases Alex Dombrandt executed a simple two-on-one to put Radwan over in the corner for his second try on debut.

A score from Ludlow was denied on a technicality but Blamire would get his hat trick from another successful lineout drive. Within seconds Radwan matched his Newcastle clubmate’s exploits with a breakaway score for his third of the match.

A unique replacement came at 65 minutes when Smith left the field, informed that he had been called up to the British & Irish Lions tour in South Africa. The game lost momentum as further subs came in for both sides with no further scoring in the final quarter.

Canada’s thoughts now turn to the World Cup Qualifiers coming this fall. A home-and-away series against the USA is first on the cards in September, and win or lose they will face a South American opponent in October with a potential place in France 2023 on the line.

 

SCORING

ENGLAND 70
Tries – J. Blamire 3 (1′, 39′, 59′), Penalty try (13′), A. Radwan 3 (15′, 50′, 61′), J. Cokanasiga 2 (20′, 23′), E. Genge (46′)
Cons – M. Smith 9/9 (2′, 16′, 21′, 24′, 40′, 46′, 51′, 60′, 62′), No kick (13′)
Yellow cards – L. Ludlow (29′)

CANADA 14
Tries – R. Braude (10′), K. Lloyd (33′)
Cons – P. Nelson 2/2 (11′, 34′)
Yellow cards – R. O’Gorman (13′)

 

TEAMS

ENGLAND
1 Ellis Genge (17 Beno Obano 56′), 2 Jamie Blamire (16 Curtis Langdon 60′), 3 Joe Heyes (18 Paul Hill 47′), 4 Harry Wells (19 Callum Chick 63′), 5 Charlie Ewels, 6 Lewis Ludlow (capt.) (20 Lewis Ludlam 55′), 7 Sam Underhill, 8 Alex Dombrandt, 9 Harry Randall (21 Dan Robson 51′), 10 Marcus Smith (22 George Furbank 65′), 11 Adam Radwan, 12 Dan Kelly, 13 Henry Slade, 14 Joe Cokanasiga (23 Joe Marchant 60′), 15 Freddie Steward

CANADA
1 Djustice Sears-Duru (18 Liam Murray 74′), 2 Andrew Quattrin (16 Eric Howard 55′), 3 Jake Ilnicki (17 Cole Keith 29′), 4 Reegan O’Gorman (20 Michael Smith 51′), 5 Conor Keys (19 Don Carson 63′), 6 Corey Thomas, 7 Lucas Rumball (capt.), 8 Siaki Vikilani (5 Conor Keys 69′), 9 Ross Braude (22 Will Percillier 47′), 10 Peter Nelson (23 Robbie Povey 74′), 11 Kainoa Lloyd, 12 Lockie Kratz (21 Quinn Ngawati 56′), 13 Ben LeSage (21 Quinn Ngawati 51′-56′), 14 Cole Davis, 15 Cooper Coats

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Craig Evans (Wales)
Assistants: Pierre Brousset (France) & Chris Busby (Ireland)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)