HUMILIATION FOR ENGLAND
Ashton bags hat-trick as Barbarians inflict worst home defeat for 108 years
ENGLAND suffered a record- breaking humiliation yesterday against a Barbarians squad who partied so hard last week that they filmed their training sessions to combat hangover-induced memory loss.
By the end of this ordeal, Eddie Jones and his men were the ones wishing they could forget it all.
This was the most points England have ever conceded in 108 years of playing at Twickenham and the most conceded anywhere since the abject ‘Tour of Hell’ 20 years ago. The Barbarians scored nine tries. Just imagine what might have happened if they had trained sober and more than three times.
Three nights earlier, Pat Lam’s multi-national squad had enjoyed a colourful Seventies-themed fancy dress outing in London. Chris Ashton went as a hippy. Yesterday he was a hat-trick hero for the conquerors of the England team he once served with distinction.
The other tormentors-in- chief were two of his Toulon team-mates, Semi Radradra and Josua Tuisova. They had partied in disco gear and afro wigs on Thursday. Victor Vito had been similarly attired and he helped himself to two tries yesterday.
Finn Russell put aside his alterego, Austin Powers, to orchestrate another victory two months after helping Scotland win back the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield.
England had spent a fortnight in their training camp, meticulously preparing for this end- of- season fixture and their forthcoming tour of South Africa. Yet they could not live with the pace and creative class of a scratch opposition team.
Asked how many times they had trained, Lam said: ‘It was three. I videoed it so I could say, “Fellas, that was a really good training session but I know that some of you probably don’t even remember it!” My analysis guy was key because I knew even though they might be half cut in the morning, they could still see the pictures!’
A fourth successive defeat was the last thing Jones needed ahead of a daunting three-Test series against the Springboks. Granted, England were without around two dozen of their leading lights — either injured or involved in the previous day’s Aviva Premiership final — but nonetheless this was an unacceptable affront to their pride.
At a time when Jones is seeking a new defence coach, that aspect of the hosts’ game unravelled alarmingly in the face of so much sorcery from Radradra, Tuisova and Ashton in particular. England contrived to miss 35 tackles yesterday, a grim footnote to this result.
‘We’re not happy,’ said Jones. ‘We need to look at that, whether they’re system errors or individual errors. Certainly early on they were individual errors, we missed a number of one-on-one tackles.’
Mercifully, there was a reluctance among the beaten players to clutch at straws. George Ford, co-captain on the day, said: ‘No matter what game you’re playing in, when you put the England shirt on you expect to be better than that.
He conceded that it was ‘embarrassing’ and added: ‘ Some of the tries seemed like easy, soft scores. Defence is a mental thing, an effort thing, an attitude thing. You can have all the systems and structures in the world, but if you’re not quite there from a mental point of view and an attitude point of view, you’re going to get hurt.’
This will have hurt England a lot. Within 12 minutes of the kick- off they were 21- 0 down. Ashton claimed a 22-minute hat-trick, with two of the tries given the added flourish of his trademark
‘Ash-Splash’ finish. The other, try No 2 for the ex-England wing, was a superb solo effort. Radradra kept ripping England apart and the best of all the visitors’ tries came when Malakai Fekitoa, Tuisova and replacement prop Loni ‘Tongan Bear’ Uhila combined with a torrent of off-loads to send Sitaleki Timani over in the right corner.
England scored six tries of their own. But aside from Tom Curry at openside flanker, few of the home players enhanced their status.
The South Africa tour now looms as a dangerous, backs-to-the-wall assignment. What happened yesterday will further undermine fragile morale. There may be more trouble ahead.