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England A punish an injury ravaged Ireland A side in Bristol

Shane Daly of Ireland leaves the pitch with an injury during the representative fixture rugby union match between England A and Ireland A at Ashton Gate in Bristol, England. (Photo By Harry Murphy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

England A built on the momentum from the senior side’s Calcutta Cup triumph by securing a 28-12 victory over Ireland A in wet conditions at Ashton Gate.

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By the time the full-time whistle was blown in Bristol, Ireland A had lost no fewer than five of their 23 to various injuries with Diarmuid Barron, Shane Daly, Harry Byrne, Ciaran Frawley and Oli Jager all removed from the field.

Ollie Hassell-Collins opened the scoring for the home side in the corner following a looping backline move, with Charlie Atkinson adding the conversion from near the touchline.

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Ireland responded by pressuring England’s defence close to the line but despite crossing the whitewash twice early on, both attempts were held up.

Play frequently broke down due to handling errors, with the sodden ball proving difficult to control for both sides. The visitors briefly drew closer when Shayne Bolton dived over from a sublime pass from Ireland A blindside Max Deegan, though a missed conversion left them trailing 7-5.

Fixture
Rugby Union Hybrid Friendlies
England A
28 - 12
Full-time
Ireland A
All Stats and Data

England’s second try arrived courtesy of the excellent Jack van Poortvliet, who executed a dummy on halfway to evade defenders before finishing under the posts, giving the hosts a 14-5 lead.

His Leicester Tigers’ teammate Hassell-Collins appeared to double his personal tally soon after, but a forward pass in the build-up saw the score chalked off, leaving England nine points ahead at the interval.

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The second half saw Ireland A endure further misfortune, as injuries forced multiple rejigging of their backline.

England A capitalized on a series of lineout steals, which led to consistent pressure near the Irish line. Although Ireland defended bravely, replacement Greg Fisilau eventually spotted a gap to burst through from the 22 before rounding winger Tommy O’Brien, with Jamie Shillcock’s conversion taking the score to 21-5.

The visitors rallied through a short-range try from the superb Hugh Gavin, converted by Nathan Doak, narrowing the margin to 21-12.

In the final minutes, England pressed and forced an infringement from Deegan, who knocked the ball intentionally close to his own try line.

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The referee awarded a penalty try, cementing an impressive 28-12 win.

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B
BleedRed&Black 28 minutes ago
Who is telling the truth about France's tour of New Zealand?

You missed all the hookers,


Lamothe 1482 30 games

Marchand 1321 29 games

Mauvaka 982 21 games


What evades you, and all the other propagandists/apologists for French rugby, is that of the 23 players identified from the 6N squad as being left at home, only five are out with injury. [I'll take you on your word for that] The other 18 are either eligible or have been ruled out because they have played "too many games" before the end of season tour. Yet all these players are not on the supposed 25 game limit. They are over it, most well over. Some have played thirty games. Read your own figures. Draw the obvious conclusion.


The fact that those players are already over the 25 game limit demonstrates that the 25 game limit is a lie, a propaganda device only applied to end of season tours, not to France's club rugby, where it is regularly and at times grossly breached. The French system reserves all the minutes and all the games for its club rugby, for the 6 Nations, for the Autumn internationals, and even then it is flexible to the point of meaninglessness, as the matches and minutes likes of Ramos have racked have demonstrated. Reciprocal internationals to the south means nothing to French rugby. No space is given to them, no significance is attached. They are a burden to the French game, a diversion from the soap opera, something that French rugby treats with the contempt it believes they deserve.


Its one thing to be forced to accept the decisions of the powerful. Its another thing altogether to believe their lies.

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t
takata 36 minutes ago
Who is telling the truth about France's tour of New Zealand?

All French Rugby pro contracts (players are all contacted with their club and not with the French Federation), following the demand from their player association, are including a clause about resting players:

- after 6 consecutive weeks, one should rest one week.

- each summer, they should have 6 consecutive weeks of rest.


Now, take into account the fact that the championship will finish at the end of June and will restart in early september ; with a few weeks of preparation in August, there isn’t much left for the “summer friendlies” without impacting the early club season ; it’s even worse for Pro D2 which start earlier.


Beside, those “tests” are really considered “frendlies” and, unless something like last year in Argentina happened to draw general public attention into it, nobody really care about them in France (barely no press or tv). I’m following Rugby for almost 50 years (club and national team) and I can’t remember having watched a single summer game in my life while I’ve never missed a single 5/6 Nations, a world cup or the Championships’ playoff.


The Top 14 format didn’t change during the last 20 years and it’s not going to change any time soon (and it certainly wasn’t any better before 2005). The clubs are not franchised and will be relegated to Pro D2 if they are not competitive enough from the start. If this happen, it just might kill them financially.

284 Go to comments
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