Despite heroic efforts, with Ellgia Fields frozen solid, Cambridge’s prestige friendly with England Under 20s was hastily re-arranged as a 6pm kick off on 3G at Bedford Athletic. With facilities at Athletic not geared up for big crowds, the decision wasn’t taken lightly and unfortunately, only a hardy few were able to watch what was, in the end, a really good spectacle.
Speaking with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire ahead of the game, Connor O’Shea, Executive Director of Performance Rugby at the RFU said’ “It’s a shame we weren’t all at Cambridge today but actually, to get the game away here, and to experience another part of the rugby eco-system, shows what the ‘rugby family’ is all about. We needed the game, Cambridge needed the game, so thank you to Trevor Mulvaney and Bedford Athletic for allowing us to come here. It’s a bit of a mixed squad for us tonight, we need to give everyone the opportunity to show in an extended squad, and it’s exciting to see some players get their first outings in an England shirt this evening. It’s hugely important for us – there’s massive potential in this group – they were brilliant last year in winning the 6 Nations and the Junior World Cup – and I think this year’s group have the ability to emulate that and take it to another level”.
It was hard to argue with that assertion as England raced into an early lead – and certainly their lightning backs caused problems all evening. Three scores down early doors, it took a herculean effort from the Blood & Sand to wrestle back some control. A sign of things to come just before half time, with the Eli Caven-Jared Cardew combination on the left putting the flying flanker in at the corner, showed the game was nowhere near over as a contest, and so it proved after the break.
Archie Vanes touched down from a driving maul two minutes into the second forty – Louis Grimoldby added the extras but England scored twice more in quick succession to take the result beyond doubt. Cambridge, however, with changes being rung off the bench, kept going and wore down the England defence by playing to their own strengths, in this case the line out and the driving maul. More pressure at the line out earned a penalty try and a big brace from number eight Jack Bartlett meant the second half scores were tied. Kudos, too, for Grimoldby’s drop-goal conversion from out wide as his side kept up momentum until the final whistle.
Interim head coach Anthony Allen was pretty pleased with his side’s efforts in sub-zero temperatures. “We had some good moments – if you look across the whole game, we could have had more of those – but we just fell off in a few areas. In key times we could have made more line-breaks. But there are plenty of positives and some good things to work on ahead of London Scottish at Grantchester Road next Saturday”.
Many thanks are due to all those who tried to keep the game on at home, who valiantly attended the lunch at CRUFC, and got the match on at Bedford Athletic. I’m sure we’ll see England Under 20s at Ellgia Fields in the near future – and of course, there’s the game between England Under 19s and their counterparts from Japan on March 22nd.
Cambridge
Tarrant, Glister, Hanks, Betteridge, Caven, Grimoldby (C), R Dawson; Nearchou, Vanes, Bridges, Sylvester, Baxter, Adams, Cardew, Bartlett
Replacements – Brownlie, Ellwood, Walker, Bretag-Norris, Gaffan, Green, Williams, Hema, White
England Under 20s
Kinder, J Bracken, Tuima, Allison, Griffin, Coen, Hanson; McEachran, Gulley, Raymont, Ainsworth-Cave, Burrow (C), Timmins, Williams, James
Replacements – Scola, staples, Tuipulotu, Sela, Sodeke, Gilmore, Hammick, Friday, Davies, Lilley, Ridl, Bellamy