Counties gain revenge with second-half surge
ENGLAND Counties avenged last year’s defeat by Scotland Club XV with a 45-28 win at Moseley’s Billesley Common.
A second-half surge secured the victory with the teams going into halftime level at 14-14.
After last year’s 57-27 defeat, head coach James Shanahan said the squad had emphasised restoring pride.
He said: “We didn’t talk about revenge as such, we just talked about the guys that played last year, about making sure they got their pride back.
“I think the amount of work we put in the first half, with the ball in hand, wore them down and therefore we had that ability in that second period to really kick on.
“It was a really hardfought win, but a comfortable win in the end.
“We talked about intent in the build-up and placed a really big emphasis on playing high tempo with ball in hand and just trying to wear teams down.”
England Counties, the flagship team of the community game for players from National League One and below, showed their attacking ambition from early in the match, running the ball from deep with Ampthill fly-half Joe Tarrant pulling the strings.
England opened the scoring through hooker Matthew Miles, who broke away from the back of a rolling maul to cross the line.
Scotland responded minutes later when inside centre George Taylor weaved his way through.
It was then the turn of his opposite number to find a gap as Steve Leonard ran in to score.
The final try of the first half went the way of Scotland wing Jordan Edmunds, who intercepted a loose pass and ran away from the covering defenders.
The second half started much more positively for the away side as they enjoyed most of the possession and worked their way up the pitch allowing Edmunds came off his wing to score once again.
However, this was to be the only time in the game that Scotland would lead, as England soon closed the gap through the boot of impressive Tarrant.
It proved to be the turning point as immediately from the restart inside centre Leonard made a break and fed Leo Fielding who only had to run it in.
The floodgates then opened for England Counties, who scored three further tries, through Stokes, Fielding and Leonard.
Scotland clubs were able to score once more, but replacement John Cox’s try was nothing more than a consolation.
The match was the first in the England Counties season with the side set to play Ireland Club XV on Friday, March 17, in Cork followed by a three-match tour in June.