AFTER the drubbing in Dunedin England’s other senior touring side showed that there is still strength in depth by beating Canada 48-23 in Calgary on Sunday night to book their place in the Churchill Cup final against New Zealand Maori. But the win may have come at some cost with Alex King, the London Wasps fly half, forced off with knee ligament damage.
If he misses the final in Edmonton on Saturday it will be another bitter blow for King, whose career has been blighted by injury. King was a certainty for England’s 30-man World Cup squad this time last year until a knee injury ruled him out.
King, 29, had a magnificent end to the season, winning the Heineken Cup and Zurich Premiership with Wasps and may have felt unlucky not to be given a chance in New Zealand. After helping England to a 24-11 lead at half-time, King was replaced by Dave Walder, the Newcastle Falcons fly half, after six minutes of the second half.
England also lost Pat Sanderson, the flanker, with a hip injury but steadied the nerves and, in the end, were comfortable victors with Jamie Noon and Dan Scarbrough both scoring two tries as England ran in eight to Canada’s three.
SCORERS: England: Tries: Noon (2), Scarbrough (2), Vyvyan, Hazell, Cueto, Horak. Conversions: King (2), Walder (2). Canada: Tries: Richmond, Smith, Fyffe. Conversion: Danskin. Penalty goals: Danskin (2).
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ENGLAND: M Horak (rep: K Sorrell, 76); M Cueto, J Noon, H Paul, D Scarbrough; A King (rep: D Walder, 46) M Wood (rep: P Richards, 76); M Worsley, M Cairns (rep: G Chuter, 49), W Green (rep: M Ward, 68), L Deacon, A Brown (rep: R Birkett, 68), P Sanderson (rep: W Johnson, 63), A Hazell, H Vyvyan (captain).
CANADA: Q Fyffe; S Richmond, R Smith, M Di Girolamo, D Moonlight; M Danskin, M Williams; K Tkachuck (captain), A Abrams, G Cooke, C Yukes, S O’Leary, M Langley, C Strubin, J Jackson.